Of One Eventful Evening And Its Consequences
by watram
Summary: Rewrite of Say Goodnight, Gracie. Rory and Jess make up after Jimmy's visit to the diner, but does that make things better or more complicated?
1. Knock, Knock, Let Me In

Summary: Say Goodnight, Gracie rewrite. After Jimmy storms out of the diner, Rory gathers the courage to talk to Jess. They make up (and not only that), but Jess's life is still quite a mess and there is a lot up to Luke...

A/N: This scenario has been begging me to be written. I'm not sure yet whether this will be two chapters long or if I'm going to continue with this into season 4 timeline, so I would really appreciate if you would review and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmores! I swear! Convincing enough? I borrowed a part of the dialogue from the show too.

* * *

Lorelai was exhausted, which made it pretty easy for Rory to tell her mother that she had to deal with something and she'd see her at home, probably in the morning.

It was getting late and the town square was emptying. There seemed to be something foreboding in the air that evening. Foreboding what, she didn't know. Rory crossed the empty town square, listening to the distant sounds of someone's fast steps, a TV playing in a house across the street. She wasn't scared, she was never really scared in this town. But something was off, she could feel it.

The feeling intensified when she saw the diner door wide open though the lights were off. She looked around but Luke was not in sight, neither was his truck. The windows of the apartment were dark. She peeked in through the door to see Jess sitting at a table in the middle of the diner, his face buried in his crossed arms on the table.

She stopped for a moment, pondering on whether she should just go in or keep avoiding him but that limbo they seemed to be in was driving her crazy for the past two days so finally she gathered her courage and climbed the two steps, entering the diner.

"Jess?"

"Hey," came a muffled reply but he didn't move.

"You're okay?"

He shrugged. He looked so... distant. As well as small and vulnerable, even though she couldn't see his face. Her heart melted a little at the sight of him like that. She'd never seen Jess vulnerable. Throughout the months they've been dating, she discovered that underneath his tough exterior he could be sweet, cute even, always denying it of course, but showing weakness was entirely un-Jess Mariano. Yet here he was, looking like that, making it impossible for Rory to stay angry at him for what happened in Kyle's bedroom, for the fight with Dean, for walking away without talking to her. It worried her. She wanted to know what exactly was going on in that stubborn head of his because the only thing that she could tell on her own was that something was wrong with him. She walked over to him slowly and put a hand in his hair, toying with his dark curls, fighting her instincts to ask him a million questions, demand answers instantly and instead trying to give him time to speak on his own.

"Rory?" he mumbled finally, his face still hidden. She didn't stop fumbling with his hair.

"Yeah?" She held her breath, waiting for him to speak.

"I love you."

That, she didn't see coming. She stiffened and complete silence surrounded them, except for the pounding of her heart and his seemingly shaky breathing.

"I need coffee," she said very weakly and reached out for a half-full cup that stood on the table next to Jess's elbow.

He finally lifted up his head, sensing what she was doing. "Wait, that's Jimmy's!"

She gave him a confused look, their eyes meeting for the first time. "Jimmy's?"

"I just... had a surprise visitor," he explained wearily.

"Some... friend from New York?"

He exhaled deeply. "My poor excuse for a father showed up," he answered, and however hard he tried to hide it, she heard his voice break a little.

"Oh."

She wasn't capable of saying more and neither was he, as he got up, leaned against the counter and shoved his hands into his pockets. They spent minutes like that, him looking down at his shoes, her looking at him. "Jess, I need you to talk to me," she whispered eventually.

He looked up at her with a pained expression. "I'm a fucking loser, Rory." She shook her head slowly. "I am. That's my genetic code. My father decided to see me for the first time in what, eighteen years, told me I look different and stormed out. And you know what the even greater part is? Luke knew," he spit out angrily. "He went to see Jimmy last night but didn't feel like telling me that my daddy's in town."

"He probably tried to protect you," she reasoned.

"I don't need him to protect me!" It came out harsher than he intended and they fell into tense silence again, full of questions and bad news still to be announced. "I'm sorry for the Kyle's bedroom thing," he said, hiding his face in his hands. "I was a complete jerk."

"You were in a funk all night," she stated.

"Still doesn't give me an excuse."

She waited for him to elaborate but he didn't. She was about to yell at him because of how frustrated she was getting but she realised that he didn't need that. "Well?" she only asked. He didn't answer and she couldn't take it anymore. "Jess," she cried desperately, "usually your Mr. Monosyllable act is quite endearing but now it's just driving be crazy! You don't trust me, is that it?"

"No!"

"Then what is it?"

"It's embarrassing," he said, running his hand through his unruly hair.

"Jess, say it," she urged through gritted teeth. "Say it or I'm out of here."

"I'm... I'm not graduating."

"What?"

"I'm not graduating," he repeated. "I missed out on too many classes. It's just -" he groaned, "bureaucracy. I could still catch up and pass all my finals but Merton wouldn't let me. Unless I do the whole year all over again."

She looked at him with her hand over her forehead, trying to process. "Did you tell Luke yet?" she asked quietly.

"Nah. I wanted to tell him tonight but there's this whole new honesty thing we're trying," he remarked cynically.

"You should tell him."

Jess grimaced. "I will. It can't be as hard as telling you anyway."

He exhaled deeply but shakily. He did his part. He told her all the important stuff that was bothering him right at that moment. It was her turn, so she took a few tentative steps towards him and wrapped her arms around him. He didn't expect that so it took him a couple of seconds to reciprocate the embrace and rest his chin on her temple.

"So... about that first thing you said to me when I came in..." she started.

His entire body seemingly tensed up at that. "Right. My timing sucks and it came out as the lamest 'I love you' ever," he nodded self-deprecatingly, his hand nervously running up and down her arm.

She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly shining from the realisation that he really meant it. "No," she shook her head, offering him a small smile, "although I am slightly jealous of that table because it heard it before me... I just... I love you too, Jess," she breathed into his neck.

She loved that look in his eyes. Like he couldn't believe how lucky he was. There was something pure and innocent about it, despite the fact that he certainly wasn't the poster child for innocence, that look in his eyes made her feel like she was the only person in the world. She couldn't doubt his words when he had that look in his eyes.

They neared each other sheepishly, as if they had never kissed before. There was something new in this kiss, a promise, an intensity and tenderness that both of them were wary to release before, scared of pushing the other away with it.

When they pulled away, their fingers interlocked, he slid to the floor to sit against the counter and pulled her with him. She smiled at him and he couldn't help but wonder how this girl was able to make him feel so safe with a simple smile. He rested his head on her shoulder, at which her smile grew even brighter.

"How are you taking this so calmly?" he asked. "As if it wasn't bad enough that the town princess is with the town... hoodlum, or whatever they call me, now I'm also a high-school drop-out. You sure you don't wanna dump me?" His tone was only half-serious but the question was real.

"I'm sure, silly," she answered with a pout and cuddled closer to him.

He tilted his head to look her in the eye. "I hate that you're seeing me like this," he said solemnly.

"I don't," she assured. "I mean... I hate to see you in this situation but I want to be here through the bad stuff too, Jess." He looked at her for a moment and moved in to kiss her again, pulling her closer by the waist. The kiss lasted long enough for her to make an important decision. "Hey, where is Luke, anyway?" she asked, trying to sound cool.

"He went to see some Broadway musical with Nicole again."

"Will he be back tonight?"

"Really late, why?"

She hesitated for a moment, choosing the correct wording for the next question. "You wanna... go upstairs?" If the diner wasn't almost dark, he would have seen her blush.

Of all people, he was the one who knew that she wasn't quite as innocent as everyone thought she was. He liked that, he liked knowing that he had an effect on her, that he challenged her on many different levels. But Rory Gilmore basically propositioning him – that must have been his wishful thinking. After all, going upstairs to an empty, dark apartment could be completely innocent.

His eyes met hers uncertainly, searching for some clues.

"You mean..." he trailed off, briefly questioning since when did Jess Mariano get sheepish at the mention of sex.

She nodded in response.

"Rory, I don't want this to happen because you feel sorry for me." And he certainly didn't say that he loved her in order to get her to bed. He hoped she knew that.

God, he was becoming a such a freaking puddle of goo tonight. There, Gilmore, pleased with yourself?

"That's not why, Jess," she said, squeezing his hand. "Look at us, being all grown up and discussing stuff," she gave him a small smile as he stood up and extended his hand to her to help her get up. He kissed her immediately to mask the flood of different feelings that took over him.

His focus instantly shifted from the argument whether this was right or wrong to Rory, the way her arms were wrapped around his neck, her whole body flush against him. When their lips parted, she pulled him lightly in the direction of the curtain.

"You're sure Luke's not coming home yet?"

He looked at his watch. "The show is only starting right about now."

The walk up the stairs was a torture. For both of them. It was full of delicious anticipation but also nervousness that was familiar to Rory, as she felt it many times when she was near him, but new to Jess. He was scared, and despite his honest effort, there was no other way to call it. He had been with girls before, but he was never that nervous, not even before his own first time. With Rory, as much as he wanted to be with her, he was afraid that this would change her somehow.

He didn't want to change her. He only wanted to bring out the real Rory out of the shell of the small town princess.

As soon as he locked the door of the apartment behind them, he drew her close and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Rory, it still doesn't have to go any further, okay? Just say-" She didn't answer him, only sneaked her hands under his shirt. He smirked for the first time that evening. "As you wish, Miss Gilmore."

* * *

"So that's what all the fuss is about," she murmured against his shoulder as they lay tangled together in his bed. He only chuckled and she looked up at him. "Jess?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Why were you scared?"

Shit. He hoped she wouldn't notice. "Because it's you," he answered simply.

"Oh." She hid her face in the crook of his neck. "I love you."

He couldn't help but grin. "You told me that already."

"Does it get old?"

"Nope," he said and kissed the tip of her nose which brought a happy smile to her face. She kissed him fully and wrapped her arms around his neck as he hovered above her.

"Jess... I need to go home."

He sighed. She had succeeded in making him forget about everything else. Jimmy. Luke. School. Being a disappointment. Now it was coming back to him and he was beginning to feel like shit again, despite Rory Gilmore telling him 'I love you' whilst lying in his bed. Naked.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Does it look like I'm mad at you?" she answered with a question.

"Well, you really did want to go to the prom."

"We can go to Chilton prom."

"We can?" he inquired.

"Sure."

"And when we get tired of all the high society brats, can we make out in the teachers' bathroom?" he smirked.

"That may be hard to arrange, I hear that's a pretty elite spot and reservations for it sell out way before the prom tickets." He pouted and she laughed. "Turn around, I need to dress."

"Huh."

His eyebrows raised, smirk in place, no clothing. No time. Dammit. "Jess! Turn!"

"Okay, okay," he turned and started getting dressed himself. He was done in time to watch her pull her shirt on and his mouth went dry, regardless of the fact that it was a mere visual.

She caught his hand and pecked him on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You're going somewhere without me?" he questioned.

"Home," she answered. He pulled her towards the apartment door. "You're walking me home?" she asked, grinning.

"It's after midnight."

"Aw, that's so sweet!" she gushed and he gave her a dirty look. "But you should stay. I need quiet time to think about how I should tell my mom anyway."

"Ouch," he winced.

"Yeah... You're still walking with me," she stated as they exited the diner.

"You're still talking instead of thinking."

"Okay. Thinking now."

She did try to think about Lorelai and how to tell her about the evening, but with Jess's arm tightly around her waist it wasn't particularly easy.

"Got any genius ideas yet?" he asked as they stopped on the front porch of her house.

"Not yet," she said.

"Call if you need reinforcements, okay? I can't sink any lower in Lorelai's books anyway."

She bit her lip and looked him straight in the eye. "You're gonna be okay? With school and your dad and all?"

He shrugged, trying to appear careless. "I guess."

"Okay. We'll... talk... tomorrow."

"Today," he corrected.

"Right. Today."

"G'night Rory."

"Night."

And after one final kiss, she disappeared inside the house.

* * *

He walked back into the apartment and his eyes fell on his bed instantly. It was made, more or less, but the memories weren't erased because of that. Just as he was about to lose himself in thoughts of Rory again, the apartment door opened and Luke walked in confidently. It made Jess's blood boil, as he remembered the earlier part of the night.

"What are you still doing up?" Luke asked at the sight of his nephew.

"Waiting for you to have a little heart-to-heart," Jess answered with a scowl on his face.

"Oh yes, we haven't had one of those in a while."

To stall or not to stall – that is the question. "So I hear you went to see my father last night."

Luke froze and sighed. Although he insisted that the secret of parenting was to visualise the reality you want and then, if necessary, lie to bring it about, he somehow sensed that it wouldn't work in this particular instance. "Yeah, I did."

"Were you gonna tell me?"

"He came by," he said casually, avoiding Jess's eyes that seemed like they had the power to kill.

"He came by?"

"I didn't think he'd have the guts."

"So what were you thinking?"

"Jess, I don't like your father very much."

Well, neither did Jess himself. Still. "So because you don't like him, that means I can't know he's here?"

"You know he's here."

"No thanks to you!"

"Shouldn't have come from me in the first place."

"So what, you don't think you owed it to me to tell me, prepare me?"

"No, Jess, I didn't. With everything that's going on here with you, I kinda hoped he'd just walk away, but. . .once again, Jimmy makes the wrong move. What a shock."

Luke being judgemental made Jess's resolve to try and stay calm crumble. Considering all the events of the evening, he was holding up for a long time anyway. "Oh, who the hell are you to decide what the right move is?"

"I'm the one who's saving your ass constantly. I'm the one who just wrote a check to Kyle's father so he wouldn't press charges against you. I'm the one trying to knock some sense into that thick head of yours about the future."

"Oh, here we go."

"You don't take anything seriously," Luke yelled and Jess just stood there, putting his hands in his pockets, unable to deny that. "That's why you're doing so crappy in school. You're smart enough, you read more than anyone I've ever seen. There's no reason why you should be barely graduating."

Deep breath. "I'm not."

"You're not what?"

"I'm not graduating!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!" This was getting kind of old.

"Yes, you are, because we had an agreement that if you were gonna live here, you were gonna go to school and you were gonna graduate!"

"Well, I didn't and I'm not."

"What is wrong with you? What, did you do this just to spite me?"

"Look, forget it, it's done." He knew full well that he screwed that one up, he really didn't need Luke repeating it.

"What's your life now? Wal-Mart full time, that's your great future? Gonna take the plunge and buy yourself a second blue vest?"

"Maybe, why not? What's wrong with it? I mean, it's no diner."

"Hey, I own this business, kid! I built it, this is mine! I'm not at the mercy of some boss waiting and hoping to be chosen employee of the month for a couple extra hundred bucks and a plaque. I'm always employee of the month. I'm employee of the year, of the century, of the universe. You should be so lucky to have a job like mine. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna live here one more year, you're gonna quit your job, you're gonna take twelfth grade over again, and you will graduate."

"No." He didn't give it that much thought, 'no' just seemed like the right answer. And when he did think about it... another year of school would be hell indeed.

"I'm not playing with you here, Jess. You quit your job, you go to school," Luke sounded surprisingly authoritative.

"I am not going back to school!"

"So that's it?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Then you gotta go."


	2. Not Everyone Is Quite As Happy

**A/N: Finally chapter two. Completely dialogue-driven but you already knew I'm not exactly a drama writer. Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, blah, blah, blah. We all know how it goes. **

* * *

_"I am not going back to school!"_

_"So that's it?"_

_"Yeah, that's it!"_

_"Then you gotta go."_

He stood in the middle of the apartment completely dumbfounded, struggling to understand the meaning of the four simple words. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He tried again.

"I can't." He wasn't trembling, was he? That definitely wasn't something Jess Mariano would do.

"What do you mean you can't?" Luke asked, slightly toning down from the yelling.

"I go now, and I'm the biggest jerk in the entire world, is that what you want?"

"Of course that's not what I want! I've been trying to do something good for you here, Jess, but you obviously have no respect for me and you can't make the minimum effort and do as we agreed. You wanted to get out of here from the moment you set your foot in this town, now here's your chance, 'cause I'm sure as hell not holding you back! And I guess neither is your girlfriend, since you don't even have the guts to talk to her!"

"Rory and I are just fine, thank you for your concern."

"Oh yeah, I saw earlier today how fine you are. You will never be fine until you learn to open your mouth for something other than driving me crazy! But no, that would be too hard for a punk like you, wouldn't it?"

"Look, just get off my case, okay?" Jess yelled back.

"I'm trying! I told you, you can go, do whatever you like with your life but you're saying you want – for some reason I'm not getting – to stay. And as long as you live under my roof, I am staying on your case, Jess! Now would you just explain to me what's keeping you here?"

"Rory!" he cried out, a little hastily.

Luke just shook his head, then paused to eye his nephew carefully. "You slept with her, didn't you?" he finally asked, his voice quiet and disbelieving. He slammed his fist on the table in frustration when Jess didn't deny it. "How long has this been going on?" Jess stubbornly remain silent, causing Luke's face to go completely pale. "She's not pre-"

"No!" Jess exclaimed and inhaled deeply. "It just happened tonight."

Luke covered his face in his hands. "And you were-"

"Yeah," Jess interrupted, looking down at the floor.

"I don't even know what we should deal with first, you not graduating, you sleeping with Rory or you meeting your father."

"I can deal with the Rory thing on my own."

"Good, because I can't talk to you about... this," Luke trailed off awkwardly.

"I'm glad," Jess agreed and instantly slapped himself inwardly for missing such a brilliant opportunity to mock the hell out of his uncle.

"What about school, Jess? What are you going to do with yourself in the fall without a high school diploma?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Besides, if you are so interested, why did you never question that before and just waited with it until I flanked out of school? What does a high school diploma change for me now? Nothing," Jess started, observing realisation spread across Luke's face. "Nothing at all. I haven't applied to college anyway. I have no set plans for next year, with or without the stupid piece of paper, do you get that? Do you know what it's like to have no realistic dreams for the future? Do you?" By the end of the rant he wasn't even yelling anymore, his voice only expressed frustration and extreme tiredness. The two men stared at each other in silence for a moment, digesting the words and the entire situation. "So?" Jess asked finally.

"So what?"

"Can I stay until I figure out what to do with myself?"

Luke nervously scratched his forehead. "Fine, stay," he answered after a few seconds of silence, already berating himself for overlooking something so important for his nephew's future and causing Jess to sigh in relief. "But I'm doing this for Rory," Luke added quickly, careful not to show his guilt.

"That kind of makes two of us," Jess nodded in agreement, a shadow of a smile creeping onto his lips at the mention of her name. "Thanks, Uncle Luke."

"Right. But you owe me, I don't know how many chances I have already given you."

"I'll be sure to get you a bunch of flowers first thing in the morning."

* * *

Rory didn't bother to turn the lights on, she just took off her shoes and jacket and lay down on her bed. She had to decide how to handle telling her mother. A freak out was to be expected, that she knew for sure. Besides, not only did she have to tell her about sleeping with Jess, but the Jess not graduating thing was bound to come up as well. Lorelai would hate it. And Rory wasn't sure if she could deal with her mother being upset about all this and most of all – judgemental of Jess. She, of all people, should understand the business of not finishing high school despite being exceptionally smart.

She just wanted to protect Jess from being judged by the entire town, starting with Lorelai and ending with Kirk's mother. But she knew she wasn't able to do that.

The events of the past couple of hours, which she still couldn't quite wrap her head around, were another matter and she would happily lose herself in the memories but she had to find some solutions first.

A shower seemed like a good first step in the right direction.

Whilst drying her hair, she was weighing her options about talking to her mother. She could tell her in the morning before school, hence giving her little time to freak out. That was a definite pro. The con to that was that if Lorelai decided to really freak out, Rory would be late to school. And she had an important geometry test first thing in the morning. No, that idea was out. The second option was waiting four days until the weekend. That way they would have a lot of time to talk it over calmly, and she would have time to prepare herself beforehand. But Lorelai's freak out was likely to be monumental if she found out that Rory was hiding something like that from her. The last possible scenario was to wake her up right now. Yes. No major cons, other than the fact that it was the middle of the night.

She climbed up the stairs quietly and settled on the bed, next to her mother.

"Mom," she whispered. "Mom," she repeated, only making the elder Gilmore grunt sleepily. She went down to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee, not very strong so that they could still get some more sleep that night. She entered her mother's bedroom again, knowing that the aroma of the steaming liquid in the two cups she was holding would work wonders.

Indeed, after a short moment, still sleeping Lorelai murmured "Coffee!" and then slowly opened her eyes.

"Rory? What are you doing here?" she mumbled. "Aside from bringing me coffee, which I, of course, appreciate very much, even though I do not make a habit of waking up for a cup of java, however much I love it and I wouldn't be able to live without it and oh my God, are you in trouble?" she finished in one breath and sat up.

Rory smiled slightly at her mother's ranting abilities. "No trouble, Mom, just wanted to talk."

Lorelai looked at her daughter carefully for a moment then lowered her eyes to her cup of coffee. "Jess," she only said.

Rory bit her lower lip. "How – how did you know?"

"You went to talk to him last night, I was still conscious enough to figure that out. Wanna tell mommy what happened?"

"Well," Rory started, avoiding eye contact with her mother. "We talked..."

"Okay, you talked. Does that mean that you talked or did he join in and allowed you to see what's going on in that messed up head of his."

"He talked too," Rory confirmed and fell silent.

"Rory, I'm getting a feeling that there is something you want to tell me but you can't bring yourself to do it so please calm my nerves quickly because I'm really starting to think that there was -"

"Yes," the girl said very quickly, hiding her face in her hands.

"Oh my – oww! Shoot!" Lorelai exclaimed as her coffee spilt onto her lap, fortunately covered by a duvet. She jumped up and out of bed while Rory stared at her, recovering from the shock.

"Mom, you're okay?"

"I am, but these are the brand new Egyptian bedclothes from your grandmother!"

"The ones she got you from her last trip?" Rory shouted in panic.

"Yes!"

"Oh!" Rory only managed to cry out before running out of the room. When she returned there with kitchen towels and they frantically carried out the bulk of the rescue mission and they were taking off the covers, Lorelai picked up the conversation.

"So. You slept with Jess." Rory only nodded mutely. "Do you regret it?" Lorelai inquired.

Rory's head finally shot up and she looked at her mother in surprise. "What? No! Why – why would I regret it?"

"Well, I don't know, you seem very embarrassed about the whole thing."

"No! It's just... talking to you about... that... is awkward."

"Huh," Lorelai started somewhat bitterly. "Here I was bringing you up as my best friend, thinking that we could be an example of a supreme mother-daughter relationship and – in the best case scenario – prevent you from having sex until you graduated, or – worst case scenario – be able to calmly talk about it. This scenario wasn't even a scenario! You promised," she emphasised, "to tell me before sleeping with your hoodlum of a boyfriend!" Some time mid-rant her voice became raised, causing Rory to stare at her in disbelief.

"Was I supposed to call you as we were going up the stairs? Not that I have an awful lot of experience but I do believe it would have ruined the moment."

"No, honey," Lorelai countered, wiping away a single tear. "You are a kind of person who plans everything ahead. This was supposed to be perfect for you, and you just hopped into this. With Jess," she added quietly, shaking her head.

"Mom! I love him!" Rory said forcefully.

Lorelai was in a state of shock for the second time in one night. She didn't know if she could take it. Sniffling, she sat down on the bed, motioning to Rory to do the same. The younger Gilmore complied.

"This is bigger than I thought, kid." Rory had nothing to say to that. "You love him," Lorelai stated and Rory responded with a nod. "Did you ever tell him that?"

"Tonight. He said it first though."

"Wow. Who tho – no, actually when I think about it, it fits in his monosyllabic range. Was it... pre or post making whoopee?"

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, a smile finally emerging on her lips. "Pre. A lot. He didn't tell me that to get me into bed, if that's what you're asking. He just kind of blurted it out, he was having an awful couple of days, he found out he's not graduating and his dad showed up tonight and I guess it all just boiled over."

"Whoa, wait here missy, did you say he's not graduating?"

"Yeah. He missed out on too much."

"And you're okay with that, babe?"

"Not really," Rory shrugged. "But it doesn't change the way I feel about him."

For a moment, Lorelai processed her daughter's words in silence. "And his dad?"

"He just showed up and didn't even say much and then he left right before I came in."

"Man, that sucks," Lorelai admitted. "So you decided to cheer your boyfriend up with sex."

"Mom!"

Lorelai sighed heavily. "You were safe," she stated, waiting for a confirmation.

"Of course," Rory answered, her eyes lowered onto her lap.

"He was nice to you," her mother wanted to make sure.

"Very," Rory replied, covering her eyes with her hands in embarrassment but smiling widely now.

"Good. Maybe I don't have to kill him after all."

"I'd be grateful. I have so much to do before graduation I really have no time for grieving."

"Damn, you got it hard," the older woman stated and extended her arms to Rory before quickly letting them drop. The girl read her mother's expression immediately.

"I already showered," she assured.

"Okay," Lorelai said and drew Rory closer by her shoulders. "I'm losing my baby to a boy-"

"That's absurd, Mom."

"You didn't let me finish."

"Sorry. What were you going to say?"

"That it seems only like yesterday that you confided in me that you liked Judd Nelson."

"Hush, Mom, I had a weird taste when I was four, it's embarrassing."

"Sorry, you wanted to go back to discussing the Jess-sex?"

"Thanks, I'd rather not."

"That bad?" Lorelai teased.

"Hey, I didn't say that!" Rory exclaimed, getting up from the bed and making her way towards the door.

"You never said it was good either," the mother replied excitedly.

"I'm not telling you anything."

"Come on, I gave birth to you, if I deserve to know something in this life it's about how your first time was."

"Goodnight Mom."

"I'll ask Lane!" Lorelai threatened.

"Mom!"

"Rory, give me something here! Just one little, innocent adjective."

"It was... Jess."

"Babe, I realise it's late but even I, one of the high school drop outs that you love to surround yourself with so much, know that it's a noun."

"Works as an adjective for me," Rory responded and yawned, slowly closing the door to her mother's bedroom behind her.

"His evasiveness is rubbing off on you!" Lorelai shouted after her daughter and thoughtfully murmured, "possibly dirty." She wasn't sure, she'd have to check during the day. "Night hon!"

"Night Mom!"

* * *

That morning he spotted her at Doose's in the stationery aisle. He approached her quietly from behind and cocked his brow at what she was holding.

"What do you need ten black pens for?" he asked casually, placing a hand on her waist. She jumped away in surprise, which in turn surprised him and he stared at her flushing face as she averted eye contact.

"To write?" she answered uncertainly, looking down.

She wasn't even able to look at him. It made his blood boil and his fists clench in anger. He tried to suppress it. "You only ever use blue pens," he stated, his voice full of tension. She didn't move or respond. "So this is what it's gonna be from now on? All awkward? Or did you talk to Lorelai and decide that last night was all a big mistake?" Now it was Rory's turn to gape at him. "Shit," he hissed. "I knew it. We rushed it."

Rory wordlessly threw the pack of pens back on the shelf and caught his hand, pulling him in the direction of the exit.

As soon as they were outside the store, she frantically looked around, but seeing Miss Patty walking across the street, she pulled Jess further, fast, almost running. He followed her in confusion, more and more alarmed by the fact that she wasn't talking. She stopped when they were already close to the bridge and there was no one around. Throwing her arms around his neck she kissed him fiercely, catching him completely off-guard and letting out a satisfied sigh when he became breathless.

"You're crazy," she said, pulling away and placing her hand on his arm.

"Says the woman who just dragged me through half the town without saying a word only to throw herself at me," he muttered.

"I didn't change my mind about anything," she assured.

"So what was that weird behaviour constituting of avoiding all touch and eye contact about?"

Rory shot him a meaningful look, observed as his eyes went wide, then a smirk emerged on his lips and she blushed furiously again.

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"Good memories?" he asked, circling her shoulders with his arm and leading her onto the bridge.

"Decent," Rory mumbled.

"Funny that. Mine are many things but decent is not one of them," Jess replied amusedly and Rory pulled away, glaring at him playfully.

"Keep this up and you'll find yourself in the water, mister," she said and sat down, her legs dangling. She looked so innocent he had to wonder where the Rory from the previous night was.

"Don't you have to go to school?"

"My first period class got cancelled, I've got almost an hour."

He settled next to her, took her hand in his and started playing with her fingers.

"So, have you talked to your mom?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, I did," Rory confirmed with a sigh. "We yelled a bit but we're okay now. And she's not setting off to kill you. For the time being," she added.

"Comforting," he remarked sarcastically.

"What about Luke?"

"Pretty much the same," Jess answered with a grimace. He chose to not share the fact that he got himself almost thrown out by his uncle.

"You told him about school?"

"Yup."

"You're not going back." It was meant to be a question but somehow came out as a statement. Jess only gave it one sharp nod of his head. "So?"

"I don't know yet."

They both sat in silence, looking over the water, both deep in their remarkably similar thoughts, holding hands. "Jess... Tell me what your dream 'whatever' is."

"What?"

"Well, you told me once that you want to do whatever and see where you end up. There must be some preferable 'whatever'."

"Rory..."

"Jess, you'd love something that involves books. Don't even pretend you wouldn't."

"I guess," he said and then suddenly Rory exploded in a fit of giggles. "What is it?"

"I-I just imagined you as an English teacher," she uttered in between laughs, "corrupting the youth of America with Hemingway or Keruac."

Jess snorted a laugh. "That's disturbing. But the corruption doesn't really start until Neruda is involved," he said and drew Rory closer.

"One-track mind, Mariano."

"Your fault, Gilmore."

She hid her face in his shoulder so he wouldn't see her blush. Again. "Anyway," she drew out the word, "we'll probably have to find you something that doesn't involve as much people as teaching does."

"Sounds like a good idea." He was meaning to say something wittier than that but his mind stopped on the 'we' she used. He liked it. Certainly one of the nicer words in the English dictionary.

"You might want to get your GEDs, you know," Rory said quietly, careful to not sound like she was pushing it. She knew he would snap, he wasn't the kind of person who lived according to others' instructions. "Even if you don't want to go to college, which, by the way, I think you totally could if you wanted to, you'd have a chance of getting a better job." Jess shrugged but he failed to appear as careless as he wanted to. "Just think about it. It's not like you'll have anything better to do all summer anyway," Rory added playfully and kissed him on the cheek.

Jess turned his head and kissed her temple as a feeling of emptiness came over him when he realised that she was going to be gone for two long months. Another summer in Stars Hollow without her. He really didn't like that idea. But that wasn't the right attitude. He was supposed to be happy for her, she was going on her big adventure. "You excited about Europe?"

"I am... I can't wait to start doing all the research, read the guidebooks, but I have so much school stuff to do before graduation. I need to make a timetable for the next couple of weeks today, otherwise it's all going to scatter into pieces."

"You think there's a chance for me to get some time slots?"

"Come around this afternoon and you can help me make the timetable, maybe that way I'll remember to put you in," she said smiling and looking over the water.

"Okay," Jess said shortly and rose to his feet. "Come on, let's get you some breakfast," he proposed, extending a hand to help her up.

"But I already ate."

"Since when does that stop you?"

"Huh," she nodded. "You really know me too well," Rory said and caught his hand. "Hey, Jess? You know next summer?"

"Sure," he answered with a frown.

"We should go somewhere," Rory said with a grin and put a hand around his waist.

There she was with the 'we' again. It made him want to try, not to disappoint her. Not to disappoint himself.

He nodded in agreement and whispered "thanks" into her ear.

"What for?"

He shrugged. "For saving me, Ror."


	3. Selfishly Buying Time For You

A/N: A shorter and not particularly substantial chapter but I really wanted to update this story before I go on my holidays. There will be more happening in the next one, I promise. By the way, I've had less than a great day, and reviews would really cheer me up! Oh, and thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter!

Disclaimer: Ownership has no place in the fanfic world. Therefore I own nothing. Unless a headache counts.

* * *

It was probably the first time in the history of Luke's apartment that the room emanated with truly studious atmosphere. This, of course, had to be credited to Rory Gilmore, who at the present time was sitting at the table, surrounded by a ton of textbooks.

Glancing up, she threw yet another concerned look at Jess who was sitting idly on the couch with a book on his lap. It didn't escape her attention that he seemed rather absent all afternoon, talking even less than usually and his eyes wandering aimlessly.

"Jess," she said quietly. "Are you okay?"

He turned to look distractedly at her and sighed, quietly, but she still heard it. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"You're not really reading," she nodded towards his book.

"Just got distracted," he shrugged. "I'm good, seriously."

"And you'd tell me if you weren't?" she asked worriedly.

"Sure. How is the schoolwork?"

"Biology finished," she announced, flipping her book closed and reaching for her cup of coffee. "Now, should I study for my history test or do physics homework?"

"What do you have for tomorrow?"

"Both. And I should start math. I have about a hundred exercises on calculus I need to do for the day after tomorrow and I have done loads of those already and I'm perfectly capable of doing them but my teacher needs evidence and this is just a waste of my time," Rory let out a frustrated groan and dropped her pen as she felt Jess's breath on her ear.

"Well, in that case, I say you should take a break," he replied with a smirk.

"Hey, you promised not to distract me. I gave you heads up that I'm only coming here to study because Lane and the guys are having band practice in our garage and the sound carries," she told him in a mock stern way, in fact glad that her rambling about school finally elicited some active response from him.

"Five minutes," Jess tried again, his mouth plastered to her cheek.

"Did I mention that ideally I should also reread _Othello_ tonight?"

"Fine," he sighed and sat in a chair next to her. "Question."

"Yeah?"

"Are you ever planning to sleep in the next two weeks?"

"No. No sleep. I have coffee," she answered, taking a big sip from her cup.

"Anything I can do?"

Slightly surprised at the offer, Rory raised her brow and after a split second of consideration she nodded. "How do you feel about helping Paris with the presentation we're supposed to give on Saturday? It's to persuade next year's student government to follow the programme Paris created."

"As tempting as that sounds, apparently I have no power of persuasion whatsoever."

"Maybe you should exercise it, I'm sure you'd get better," Rory said, faking absent-mindedness as she ticked off the biology homework in her diary.

"Okay," Jess agreed, leaning in to kiss her and smiling as she reciprocated eagerly.

"I told you not to distract me," she said accusingly when they pulled away.

"Make up your mind, Gilmore, 'cause you're contradicting yourself," he mocked. "The last thing you told me to do was to exercise my power of persuasion."

She groaned in defeat and re-attached her lips to his. "Five minutes," she murmured. "And clothes stay intact."

"Okay," he replied, drawing her close and leading her towards the couch.

"Wait!"

"What?" His brow furrowed his brows in confusion. As much fun as the banter was, he was visibly growing tired of it. He just wanted a moment of kissing in silence.

"I want that in writing."

Sneering with laughter, he caught a pen and not letting go of her, he scribbled something on the first available piece of paper. "There," he mumbled and passed her the pen. "Your turn."

She disconnected her face from his pulse point to look him straight in the eye. "Why do I need to sign it?"

"Because otherwise I might end up naked and you fully clothed and that's just not an option."

"Shut it, Mariano."

"Sign it, Gilmore, and I'll be more than happy to shut up," he continued teasingly.

"Fine," she relented and disentangled herself from his embrace, leaning over the table to sign the stupid piece of paper. "Great. I now have some of your scribbles in the middle of my school diary," she simulated irritation, signed and put the pen away.

"You asked for it."

"I did, didn't I," she grinned as their fingers automatically laced together and Jess drew her closer.

A moment later, they fell together onto the old leather couch, Rory's hands at their usual place in his hair, his arms tight around her, his body half on top of hers. They got completely engrossed by a kiss that was passionate and demanding, a promise of more to come. It actually amazed both of them, knowing that they have already crossed that line, yet just kissing and holding on to each other could still make them lose their minds.

They shifted to a more horizontal position when Rory hissed. "Ow, ow, oww, I'm lying on something, Jess," she panted and reached behind her back to reveal a paperback notebook with clear marks of time gracing its cover. It was slightly crumpled and faded, implying that it was used regularly at some point in the past. "What's this?" she asked with a frown.

"Nothing," he answered with a sigh and took it gently from her hand.

"Uh-huh. I know you well enough to know that if you say it's nothing then it's certainly something."

"It's just an old notebook," Jess attempted to shrug it off.

"Can I see? Please?" she asked, adopting the sweetest facial expression she could muster.

"Oh no," he said frightfully. "Don't pout. Just... don't waste your energy, it's not working on me," he tried to persuade while they both knew it was a complete lie.

"Please Jess. Please!" she begged before bursting out with laughter, and snatching the notebook from his hand.

He couldn't help but laugh himself as he caught her from behind, wrapped one arm around her and with the second one tried to get the book back. "Rory, not now. You'll see it at some point, I promise." She giggled and tried to wiggle out of his embrace but he only held her stronger.

In that exact position, Lorelai saw them when she burst in to the apartment, preceded by a quick knock, cursing herself for not waiting for a response first.

"Daughter. Deflowerer of said daughter," she acknowledged them briefly as they pulled away from each other and Lorelai extended her hand with her cell phone to Rory. "Hon, your dad wants to talk to you."

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Rory whispered conspiratorially with fear in her eyes. Lorelai shook her head, to receive a relieved sigh of her daughter. "Okay. And please don't ever say 'deflowerer' again," she said as she took the phone.

"Sorry. Is 'lover' better?"

Jess smirked and looked at his shoes while Rory glared at her mother. "Hi dad, how are you... No, it's okay, I was studying..." The statement earned an eye roll from Lorelai which Rory chose to ignore, turning around. "Six months anniversary, wow, I didn't notice when the time went by... Yeah, Jess...Thanks Dad... Next week? Well, I don't think we can make it next week, school is crazy with finals and all and I've got to get ready for Europe, you know... Okay, when we come back. Definitely... Wish Gigi happy six months anniversary from me. And say hi to Sherry... Okay... Bye Dad."

"Everything okay?" Jess inquired.

"Yeah. Dad invited you and me to come to Boston for Gigi's six months anniversary next week, but I told him my schedule is full, so we'll come when we," she motioned towards Lorelai, "come back from Europe. That is... if you want to, I'm not going to force you or anything..." she said awkwardly. "I mean, you don't have to..."

"Hey, meeting your dad can't be as bad as meeting your grandmother."

"Oh, but there's Sherry," Lorelai chimed in, addressing Jess. "Unlike Emily Gilmore, she's going to love you, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Now, come on, loin fruit, say bye to your lover boy because you promised me we'd go home and order the entire tapas menu from Al's tonight."

With Jess's help, Rory gathered all her books from the table and put them into the yellow backpack. "Bye Jess."

"Bye Rory." He handled her the backpack, pecked her on the lips and watched as she followed her mother out of the apartment.

* * *

"Jess, you were meant to help me to close up," Luke announced entering the apartment and seeing his nephew at the table, writing something.

"You could have called me, I didn't realise it's time."

"Sure," Luke said sceptically. "What the hell are you doing anyway?" he stopped behind Jess on his way to the refrigerator. "Enlighten me, please, because it looks dangerously like math."

"It's nothing," Jess attempted to brush it off. It seemed like a round of some serious mocking was coming up and it was already too late to run.

"Jess, are you doing homework?" Luke asked, shock and amusement in his voice painfully clear to Jess's ears.

"Look, it's not a big deal." He got up from his chair, making an awful scraping noise and opened the refrigerator, handing Luke a bottle of water and taking out a soda for himself.

"How can you drink this stuff?" Luke murmured under his breath. "What... what do you mean it's not a big deal? I've never seen you do math homework!" he continued incredulously.

"Things change, alright?"

"Oh, I know but don't blame me for being surprised that you only start doing your homework after you flunk out of school. What is it anyway?" he asked rhetorically, picking up the textbook from the table. "Huh. I always thought calculus was pretty decent. Made sense, you know. I hated trigonometry though. All the... angles and... yeah," he nodded awkwardly and closed the book to look at its cover. He frowned and moved it away from his face.

"You need reading glasses," Jess said in between gulping his drink.

His uncle ignored the statement, seemingly fascinated by something else. "Rory Gilmore?" he asked, his frown deepening.

"Sounds somewhat familiar."

"Don't play smart with me, Jess. The book. It's Rory's."

"It is?" Jess faked surprise.

Luke seemed astounded. "You're doing Rory's math homework? Is that even legal?"

"Do you really think I ever took the time to read the gazillion of Chilton's rules and regulations?"

"Right. But there's gotta be a point about not allowing one's boyfriend who dropped out of school do one's calculus homework."

"Good point, Uncle Luke. But you know, I'm a big fan of the perfect crime so I'm faking Rory's handwriting, which is not actually that hard when only numbers are involved. And I'm leaving the hardest questions for her anyway."

"Beautiful," Luke mumbled resignedly.

"Thank you. Look, I've got to get to work, I'll be back around midnight."

For a moment Luke stared at him with confusion, surprised that for once Jess was telling him where he was going and when he was coming back. Then it downed on him that it was Jess's way of making an effort. It was small but he appreciated it. He gave the kid an acknowledging nod.

"Hey Luke?" Jess turned around before leaving the apartment.

"Yeah?"

"I kind of need tomorrow morning off. Got something to sort out."

"Okay. But you're opening up on Saturday 'cause I'm staying at Nicole's."

"Fine. Thanks."

"Bye."

* * *

She got on the bus to school and found a seat, immediately opening _Othello_ she had already been reading at the bus stop. A few seconds later she felt someone seating next to her and the air around her suddenly getting thicker, but she didn't look up from her book, for the umpteenth time getting frustrated with the noble Moor's treatment of Desdemona. A single sideways glance revealed that her fellow passenger was reading _The Plague_ and owned strangely familiar palms.

She bit back a smile. "Were you just going to sit here without saying hi?"

"Yeah."

"Those are some shocking manners. Hey," she pecked him on the mouth.

"Morning."

"What are you doing on my bus?"

"The usual. Sitting, reading, kissing you."

Rory sighed theatrically. "I see I have spoiled you."

"Clearly," he smirked.

"Okay, let me rephrase my question. Where are you going?"

"Hartford."

"You're being very talkative this morning."

"I hate mornings."

"Aw, I know," she cooed. "What time did you get back from work?"

"Midnight. What time did you finish studying?"

"Around 2 o'clock."

"It's crazy, Ror. I want you still alive by the end of the school year."

"That's sweet," she smiled brightly at him, "but I'll be fine. It's almost over. So are you going to tell me what you're going to Hartford for?"

"Just to look around. I..." he nibbled on his lower lip like always when he was particularly uncomfortable, a habit she only recently discovered they shared. "I might sign up to take the GED test at the Community College. I don't know yet. But I kind of want to get that piece of paper and move on from school stuff."

"You could have told me, I would come with you!"

"Came on, you have no time for stuff like that. I'll be fine."

"Okay." She slipped an arm around him, a sweet smile growing on her face. "But if you decide to do it, I'm helping you study."

"I'll hold you to that," he replied with a smirk and dropped a kiss on her lips. "Othello," he murmured after a moment.

"What?" she asked, catching her breath.

"You should be reading."

"Oh. Yeah." She smiled and reopened the book, resting her head on his shoulder as the bus noisily continued its too short journey to Hartford.


	4. Almost A Communication Breakdown

A/N: I'm away on holidays but I found access to the internet so I'm updating. Hope you like it and please review!

Disclaimer: Don't own.

* * *

"Mom! Are you home?" Rory yelled entering the house and slipping the heavy backpack off her shoulders.

"Kitchen!" came the response. "Where have you been so long?"

"Library," the younger Gilmore said, coming into the kitchen and dropping onto the nearest chair. "I stayed to study chemistry for a bit because I had no space in my backpack to take the books home."

"The human brain is an amazing thing," Lorelai stated.

Rory furrowed her brows in confusion. "And what led you to that sudden conclusion?"

"Your backpack. It's filled with books filled with words and it's all supposed to be filling your poor brain. Where does it all fit?"

"It does have great capacity."

"Still. This is your brain, these are yours textbooks," Lorelai presented with her hands. "Having all of this information in your head must feel very packed and uncomfortable. Whereas us, uneducated people... we are free. We have all this space in our brains, baby!"

"Very interesting theory."

"That's the only kind I ever come up with," the elder Gilmore stated nonchalantly. "And speaking of books, your hoodlum lover boy was here about half an hour ago, brought a whole stack for you, I told him to put them on your desk. He said he's returning some of them and some of them he's lending. He also said he'll call you later. It was one of our longer exchanges, when I think back on it."

"Good. Mom, I really appreciate that you are trying to get on with Jess, especially... under the present circumstances," Rory stuttered, suddenly very fascinated by her nails.

"Rory," Lorelai said seriously, "I told you, you have my full support. Even though you and Jess sleeping together makes my every conversation with Luke really awkward. I mean, the guy won't even look at me!"

"How do you know? From what I saw yesterday, you won't look at him either," Rory answered, smiling slightly.

"Well, I can feel it," the mother stated.

"You can feel that Luke is not looking at you?" the daughter asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yes. No. Actually, I can usually feel it when he is looking at me and I haven't felt that for the past couple of days. Which means he's not looking at me," Lorelai reasoned.

"Interesting."

"Not really," Lorelai dismissed, her face suddenly flushing light pink. She turned away to look at Rory's studying timetable hanging on the refrigerator. "So. Today you're writing an English essay and doing calculus."

"Yep," Rory confirmed, getting up from her chair. "I better start on that."

She disappeared in her room while Lorelai prepared a fresh coffee pot.

"Mom!" came a cry after a moment, and after the cry came Rory, already wearing a pair of sweatpants but still in her blue Chilton shirt, with a book in her hands and an unreadable expression on her face. "Did you do my math homework?"

"Uh... I'm sorry, am I the only one here that finds this question more than a little bit ridiculous?"

"No, I know. But it's done!"

Lorelai approached her to look at the book that Rory was holding out to her. "It's your handwriting, Sweets, you must have forgotten you have already done it. It happens when you're running on so little sleep."

"Mom, I'm sure I didn't touch it yet!"

"Well," Lorelai started uncertainly. "Maybe you have mastered the art of doing homework while sleeping. If that's the case, you should probably teach it to the rest of your class, they would put up a statue of you in the school yard. Think how cool that would be! Or better yet, a marble Rory Gilmore bust in the hall""

Rory looked at the work with a frown, only half listening to her mother's babbling. "Jess!" she exclaimed after a moment.

"What?"

"Jess! There's no other option. I certainly didn't take my calculus books to school with me today, and you're saying he was here. Jess did my math homework!" she announced with a grin worthy of the Cheshire Cat.

"But... but he flunked out of school!"

"So? He's smart. I always told you that, you just never quite believed me. I've got to call him." With that, she grabbed the phone and disappeared in her room again, this time closing the door, and leaving her mother gaping. Eventually, Lorelai shook her head, poured herself a cup of coffee and went to seat on the couch, switching the TV on and finding nothing but commercials.

When the door of Rory's room opened a few minutes later, not turning her head around to see her beaming daughter, Lorelai asked, "So does this mean you have an open time slot tonight?"

"Um, actually, Jess is coming over."

"Can I ask you to stop grinning like a crazy person?"

"You can ask but I can't promise anything."

"You're smitten."

"Maybe," Rory smiled.

"Daughter of mine, you do know he did your math homework in order to get laid, right?"

"Well, as long as he's making an effort," Rory quipped, her cheeks burning nonetheless.

"You're hopeless," Lorelai muttered, rolling her eyes. "And I think I'm going over to Sookie's tonight."

* * *

Later that evening they were sitting in Rory's room, Jess in the arm chair, Rory cross legged on her bed, a pizza box with one slice left between them.

Contrary to Lorelai's statement, aside from kissing his girlfriend hello, Jess made no move whatsoever since he came over, despite the fact that the door was closed and the house empty. It actually both surprised and alarmed Rory.

"Take it," she motioned towards the last slice of pizza.

"I'm full," he answered, still chewing on his previous one. "Go on, you eat it."

"No, no... I'm... I'm fine."

"So you're done eating?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Are your hands clean?"

She lifted her hands to look at them. "Clean. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to show you something." He reached to his back pocket and took out the same old notebook she was trying to have a look at the day before. Hesitantly, he handed it to her. "Please don't mock," he grimaced.

She shot him a reassuring serious look and took it in silence, intently looking at the plain blue cover first. In the right bottom corner, clearly Jess's but less practised hand wrote his name.

"Can I open it?" she wanted to make sure. He answered her with a little nod.

There was something about this inconspicuous old notebook that made it seem heavy with importance, even before it was opened. She flipped the cover as if it was the first edition of _The Fountainhead _she once found in her grandfather's study. Her breathing hitched as she saw the writing on the first page. She had seen his handwriting plenty of times before, but this was all over the page, not in the margins. It was bigger than what she was used to from him, a bit neater and the tails of all 'j's and g's were different. That was what she processed first, before reading the first few sentences.

"When did you write it?" she asked finally looking up at him, her voice choked.

"Started it a bit after I turned seven. Stopped on my eighth birthday," he mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

She became engrossed in the paragraphs of writing again, her only movement he could register when he finally looked up was the nibbling on her lower lip. Then, not glancing up, she patted the space next to her on the bed, motioning to him to sit there. He did, cautiously, and as soon as he settled next to her, close enough to feel her warmth but not touching, she caught his hand and laced her fingers with his.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why what?"

"Why did you stop writing?"

"I showed it to Liz. She cried and told me never to try and write sad stories again. And that the dialogue was lacking," he added with a small smirk.

Rory laughed, even though tears dangerously prickled at her eyes.

"Not that I have a great deal of expertise in the writing of seven year old kids, but this is beautiful, Jess. And sad, too," she sniffled once and raised their hands to place a small kiss on his. Then she looked him in the eye to see his slightly freaked out expression at her gesture. She only squeezed his hand. "Do you still miss your dad?"

He hesitated for a moment, his eyes fixed on their hands. "Are you kidding? I mean, yeah, when I was a kid I had this whole scenario in my head where Jimmy came and rescued me from Liz's screwed up life. But then years went by and he never came, I stopped deluding myself that this would ever happen and the guy disappeared from my head. And now he decided to finally show up and thus yet again prove that he's a loser and mess with my head in the process." He spit it out, getting more aggravated with every word and took a deep breath when he finished. All throughout, Rory was looking at him concernedly, yet almost elated that he was opening up like that.

She took a moment to think about what he just told her. "Look, you can tell me this is your own business and I should just butt off, but I think it's going to bother you if you don't talk to him and tell him what you just told me, Jess."

"I'm not gonna tell you to butt off," he answered with a shrug and a reassuring half-smile playing on his lips.

"Good. By the way, I know this might sound strange, but flunking out of school seems to have done wonders for your level of maturity."

"I always said school was holding me back," he smirked.

She sighed soundly and lay back on the bed, pulling on his hand to do the same thing. Arm in arm, fingers laced, they were staring at the ceiling, a mess of thoughts in both of their minds, trying to actually make sense of things. They felt grown up. They were starting to see that they weren't working for their own accounts exclusively anymore because their actions affected others, and they wanted to make someone else feel happy and cared for.

Rory turned her head around to look at him and feeling her gaze, Jess did the same a few seconds later. She smiled. "I love you."

He was afraid to move or even blink. "I love you, too."

Rory responded by slinging an arm around his torso and resting her head on his chest. "Thank you for showing me the notebook... You know, if you wrote like that at the age of seven, I cannot begin to imagine how great you would be now."

"Oh, I don't think so."

"Of course you don't. You don't believe in yourself. But guess what you got me for?"

"This?" he lifted her chin and kissed her sweetly.

"That too," she couldn't help but smile. "Though it's not what I had in mind. I'm here to believe in you if even if you don't believe in yourself and to reassure you that you are an amazing person, Jess Mariano, and you could do this."

"Nice speech," he said with a smirk.

Rory smirked right back. "The revised and compact, girlfriend-only version of what I gave you a year ago when we went on that ice cream run and crashed my car."

"About that. Did I ever apologise?"

"You have nothing to apologise for. It was that furry thing on the road."

"Then on behalf of myself and the evil furry thing on the road, I apologise for ruining what must have been the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you."

She lifted her head and brows. "Are you talking about Dean's car?"

"What else?" Jess responded somewhat irritably. Not that he could help it, the town Bag Boy or even just his name still made his blood boil. It almost ruined _On The Road_ for him, the last time he read it.

"That's not the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me," she said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's not?"

"No, silly," she laughed. "You doing my math homework and denying it is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Here, something to read," he took two random books from her nightstand, passed her one of them and opened the other one himself. Rory frowned.

"Jess."

"Yeah?"

"Was I bad?"

"What?"

"I mean... in bed. Did I do something wrong? Because it's been four days, we're home alone and you want to read. Of course, reading is great, I couldn't live without reading but I figured that if you went as far as doing my homework for me, you'd want something else. And you don't seem to, so I'm thinking you hated it and now you're just being sweet and not telling me that I sucked."

"Rory, please tell me you're kidding."

"Why would I kid about this?"

"I honestly have no idea. But it was you who made me sign that clothing intact thing yesterday in the first place."

"So you assumed I was saying 'no' in general?"

"Kind of... yeah."

"Despite the fact that I told you I didn't change my mind about anything and you caught me thinking about it at Doose's whilst shopping for cereal?"

"Are you saying I was an idiot for thinking that?"

"I'd say you were." She let a strand of hair cover her face, hoping to hide her flaming cheek. "Oh man, we still have to put a lot of work into developing our communication skills."

Jess smiled devilishly, his hands wandering to her hips and under her shirt. "Okay. You think we can start with non-verbal?"

"Gladly."

* * *

He decided to walk a bit before heading back home, somewhere away from the town square and people because, as much as he knew his face was usually unreadable, any lay person who saw him now would recognise that Jess Mariano just got some and it was awesome.

Awesome being a very generic adjective, including a myriad of different feelings, all adding up to an unquestionably wonderful night. And Jess didn't use the word 'wonderful' lightly. In fact, he never used it, period. Now it seemed strangely adequate. He felt disturbingly close to understanding what all those romantic poets talked about for ages. Which was not right.

He certainly needed some time to cool down properly.

So he circled the town twice, met a terrified rabbit in the park and stopped for a moment to look at the perfectly chubby face of the moon. When he was finally able to think about things that weren't R-rated, he made his way over to the diner and stopped in his tracks just before entering the building.

He frowned, put his hands deep into his pockets and uncertainly approached the mustard-coloured heap of rust that seemed to ostentatiously stand in front of the diner.

His car was back.

Wait. That sounded a bit like he was assigning his car human-like qualities. But then, maybe he was. A little.

He listened intently, making sure that it wouldn't blow up in a moment but when he heard no ticking he actually smiled and patted the old thing on the mask and circled it. It wasn't damaged any more than it was before the theft. The only thing that seemed to have changed – he discovered in growing awe, if that was even possible – was that the doors didn't open. Beforehand he could never close them because the lock was broken.

Already creating five different theories in his head and throwing fearful glances towards the car, he jogged to the diner and up the stairs to the apartment, to burst in and find his uncle in his pajamas, clearly getting ready to go to sleep.

"My car!" he exclaimed with no introduction, pointing his hand in the direction of the window.

"You don't have a car," Luke answered doubtfully, taking his watch off his hand with fake calm.

"I do have a car, it was stolen but now it's back and the door won't open!"

"What?"

"See for yourself!" Jess opened the blinds while his uncle padded his way to the window. His brows raised at the sight of the old car.

"That's your car."

"Thank you for the newsflash," Jess stated in exasperation.

"What is it doing here?"

"You tell me."

"Me?" Luke almost jumped and turned to face his nephew, an action which he regretted immediately because Jess's eyes seemed to pierce right through him. "What do I have to do with this?"

"You took it!"

"What the hell would I take this old mount of rust for?" Luke turned defensive.

"I don't know, you must have been drugged!"

"I don't get drugged!"

"Insane, then! I can't believe I bought it when you promised to report the theft to the police. Did you even do it?"

"I explained the situation to Coop when he came to get breakfast," Luke said casually.

"And he was fine with you stealing my car and then making an appearance on the doorstep? A month later?"

"It took free doughnuts. Six of them. For the kids."

"Beautiful," Jess sighed, his hands dropping to his sides.

Luke felt a pang of guilt spreading across his pajama-clad chest. "I got the lock fixed."

Jess only glared at his uncle. "Can you be so kind to explain to me why did you do it?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Luke hesitated. "I thought you'd go to school if you had no car to drive to Wal-Mart."

The nephew stared at him thoughtfully, nibbling at the inside of his cheek. "Where are the keys?"

"What?"

"Car keys. I'm going for a ride, I can't be around you right now."

"Jess!"

Before Luke could blink, Jess was out the door, his loud steps on the stairs burning holes in his uncle's head, and a moment later the sound of the engine announced his departure, leaving Luke a bitter taste in his mouth.


	5. Remember I'm Here

A/N: Wow, it's been a while for this story, hasn't it? The next chapter will come faster, I swear. As always, thank you for all the wonderful reviews, I can't get enough of them *hint, hint*

Disclaimer: Surprise! I don't own GG.

* * *

He didn't get too far.

A few miles away from Woodbridge, he turned to a side road and there, in the complete middle of nowhere, the engine wheezed and the car stopped. Just like that. Not taking into consideration the fact that it was a quarter to midnight and its rightful owner was fuming and still in need of a good long drive.

In annoyance, Jess punched the wheel and threw his head back, thinking that it was typical that what began as a great night just had to be ruined like that.

He got a torch out from under his seat, stepped out of the car and tugged at the hood to open it, cussing under his breath when a flake of rust fell off. From what he was able to gather, he was just out of gas. Damn the blown out indicator.

Hoping that any cars would be driving through there before dawn would be crazy. He had no choice other than to walk to the gas station in Woodbridge.

He marched on briskly with his hands in his pockets; along the road that had a wood on its left and a corn field on its right. It actually felt pretty good, even though he was still thinking about Luke, what Luke did, what Luke said. And he wasn't sure whether to feel guilty or mad at his uncle. Or just plain stupid, because Luke was right about the whole school business, but Jess thought he knew better and it didn't turn out very well for him.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a car parked at the roadside and he crossed to the other side. As he approached, the door suddenly opened and he felt his heartbeat accelerate.

Then he heard a giggle.

"Dean, stop it!"

The girl he recognised as Lindsey got out of the car, clutching a shirt to her chest, still giggling. The other door opened a second later, revealing no one else but a topless Dean Forrester.

Jess didn't know whether to puke or laugh hysterically first, but since it would be uncool to be seen doing either, he just cleared his throat, getting the attention of the couple.

Lindsey exclaimed a terrified "Oh my God!" and dived back into the car, while her fiancé stood still, his mouth wide open in apparent shock.

It only took a second for Jess to adopt the right attitude. Custom, specifically for The Friendly Green Giant. He smirked.

"Lovely night, isn't it?" he started with a lightness that was in fact heavy with venom.

Dean's confused expression slowly turned into a glare. "What are you doing here, Jess?"

"Oh, you know. I needed some extra cash so I became a decency monitor. I have to wander around, look for people doing indecent things and report back to Taylor."

"We are out of town limits. And we weren't doing anything indecent," Dean stated defensively, making Jess's smirk grow bigger. Hearing the guys' exchange, Lindsey got out of the car again, this time fully clothed, walking around the vehicle to hand Dean his shirt.

"That's right," she confirmed nervously.

"We're waiting," Dean explained.

"For marriage."

"For marriage."

"Oh yeah, I've heard about that," Jess faked enthusiasm. "Congratulations," he drawled out the word. "Really, that's swell... You can be the next... Shrevie and Beth."

"Who?" Dean grimaced.

"Shrevie and Beth. Basically, they waited, got married young and then they complained that after they got married they had nothing to talk about because they had no more sex planning to do," Jess explained coolly.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing." His tone turned serious. "You're pathetic, man. Did you propose while she was tending to your black eye?"

"That's none of your business, Jess," the taller boy said through gritted teeth.

"Hey, I'm just trying to understand why you would ask your girlfriend to marry you within twelve hours of fighting me over mine."

Lindsey looked down at the ground while the two young men lost themselves in a staring match. It ended with Dean turning his gaze to his fiancée.

"Let's go, Lindsey."

She obeyed without a word, avoiding any eye contact. Dean, on his part, slammed the door on the driver's side. The engine was already starting when the girl rolled down her window.

"Jess! Do you need a ride somewhere?"

He shook his head and watched them drive away, leaving only a picturesque cloud dust lit by the moonlight behind them.

* * *

"It's like, every time I watch _Paris When It Sizzles_, I swear on a pack of red vines that I will never do it again but there's something about it being Audrey's worst performance ever that woos me every time," Lorelai rambled, stepping into the diner in the morning, her daughter right behind. "You save the table, I'm gonna bug that grumpy man in flannel."

"Have fun," Rory waved her mother off, plopping in the closest chair.

"Morning!" Lorelai chirped, approaching the counter. "How do you feel about _Paris When It Sizzles_?"

"Must be horrible," Luke grumbled, not gracing her with so much as a glance.

"The movie or Paris when it sizzles? I've got an answer for you, sir - both! But the funny thing is that both are irresistible. I was just telling my beautiful child over there that the film is worse than eating salad on an empty stomach, but it's the same with Paris when it sizzles, I mean, no matter what, Paris is Paris which means that even when it sizzles-"

"Lorelai, would you cut it out for once?"

She stopped, taken aback by his harsh tone.

"We'll have coffee and Danishes, we don't have much time this morning."

Luke nodded absently and grabbed two mugs, poured coffee into one but then spilt some when he aimed for the other.

"Jeez!" he exclaimed, looking around for a towel.

"Luke, are you okay?" Lorelai asked, concern creeping into her voice.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"How do you know I'm not fine?"

"You don't spill coffee all over the place when you're fine. Now that you started spilling – keep going and tell me what's wrong."

"Jess," he sighed, resting his arms on the counter and making eye contact for the first time.

"What about Jess?"

"When did you see him last?"

"Yesterday afternoon when he came to our house to drop off Rory's books. He came over last night but I was at Sookie's. Why?"

"We had a spat."

"A spat?"

"An argument. When he came back from yours. I gave him back his car, he freaked out on me, left and didn't come back home yet."

"Whoa, hold it right there. You gave him his car back?" Lorelai's eyes widened.

"Yeah."

"I thought it was stolen."

"Not stolen. Just hidden. By me."

"Luke!" she gasped.

"Long story. It's been eight hours. What does one do when their kid leaves in the middle of the night and doesn't come home until the morning?"

"Well, I find it's always good to check with Miss Patty, the kid might just be asleep in the studio... Honestly? I have no idea."

"Right. You've got the good kid. I have no parenting experience whatsoever and I'm stuck with an angry eighteen-year-old," Luke ranted in a forceful whisper. "I mean, I stole his car, and now he's mad at me. Rightfully mad at me. What was I thinking? I may technically be his guardian but Jess makes his own decisions. He made his own decisions when he was four and he wouldn't talk. He could talk, he just wouldn't, and nobody could make him. And here I was thinking that taking his car away would make him go to-"

"Hey Luke," Rory cut him off and welcoming him with a smile. "Everything okay?"

Luke exhaled loudly and Lorelai turned to face her daughter.

"Rory... do you know where Jess is?" she asked.

The younger Gilmore gaped at her mother, as if not comprehending the question.

"I uh... I don't. I saw him last night, he was going home. Isn't he here?" she waved towards the curtain.

"Look, Rory, don't worry about it. You probably should get to school," Luke tried to downplay the situation, even though his own nerves were evident on his face.

"I-no-why-why isn't he here?"

"Calm down," Lorelai put a hand on her daughter's arm, trying, unsuccessfully to soothe her. "They had an argument last night and Jess drove off. I just thought you might have heard from him."

"I haven't. Wait, did you say he drove off? In what? Luke's truck is right there."

"His car," the diner owner explained. "He got it back. That's kind of what the whole fight was about."

Lorelai watched as Rory's face went pale, and she tapped Luke's shoulder. "Luke, we need coffee here. Desperately," she said, worriedly eying the girl.

He put a cup in front of the younger Gilmore and filled it to the rim, but Rory only looked at it absentmindedly and sprang to her feet, walking decisively towards the diner door.

The two adults looked after her and Lorelai managed to exclaim, "Rory!" to which her daughter reacted by calling that she'll be back soon and she's got her cell phone with her, just in case. And then she was out the door, running faster than any Gilmore probably should.

Her heart seemed to sink when the bridge came into the view and he wasn't there. She crossed her arms on her chest and awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other, wondering what to do next. No great ideas came to mind, though, so she turned around on her heel and slowly walked in the direction of the diner. When she got there, she gave her mother and Luke a helpless shrug and sat down at a table. She pulled out a history textbook from her backpack, opened it and propped her temples on her hands. Her head felt heavy, and she would have given a lot to find herself back in her bed, surrounded by soft pillows that still smelled of Jess.

Who was God-knows-where right now.

"Hon," Lorelai appeared next to her, her hand starting to make comforting circles on Rory's back. "I'm sure he's okay. He probably needed some space, that argument he and Luke had sounds bad." The younger Gilmore only sniffled quietly, and Lorelai sat down in a chair next to her. "So, how about I drive you to school?"

Rory shook her head, still not looking up.

"Okay then," Lorelai tried to sound cheerful. "I will call the inn and tell Michel I'll be there later. So, what do you say we have some fun, huh? It's not every day that we get to spend weekday mornings together. Bagel hockey? Ooh, or, Luke's got cards, we could play French Fry Poker."

Rory's head finally rose to meet her mother's eyes. "I should study, Mom, really. And you should go to work."

"Oh no. I'm staying here with you, and I'm kicking his disappearing little butt the second he steps in here."

The statement made Rory crack a little smile. "I think between me and Luke, his butt will be plenty kicked."

"Oh, come on!" Lorelai whined. "I've been looking for an excuse to do it forever!"

"Tough luck, Mom."

"This is really not fair. Now, I could kick his butt secretly, but you'd notice anyway! Outrageous!" she exclaimed, proud that she lightened the mood at least a little bit. "You want your coffee now, kid?"

"Please."

* * *

The breakfast rush had passed and there was still a bit of time between the diner patrons would start arriving for lunch. Which meant that, apart from the Gilmores, the only customers were a lone elderly man reading a paper, a young mother with a grumpy toddler and Babette and Morey, sitting at the table by the window.

"That's it, I'm calling Liz, ask if he's there," Luke said decisively to Lorelai, who was still sitting at the counter.

"Luke, Jess isn't exactly a momma's boy. Wait," she raised a finger, "maybe he went straight to Wal-Mart this morning?"

"I already called them when you were on the phone. He's not there. It's his day off anyway."

"Oh," she deflated in her seat.

Rory, in the meantime, after attempting to read four different textbooks, got up, took the pot of coffee from the counter, refilled her own cup and then went to do the same for the others.

"Rory, sugar, what are you doing working here?" Babette asked, turning away from the window, through which she appeared to be watching something.

"I uh, I'm covering for Jess."

"Oh, that is very sweet of you. Shouldn't you be at school though? I noticed you girls are just sitting here today."

"A day off," Rory answered, forcing a smile.

"But you're wearing your Chilton uniform."

"Well, it's a short notice day off."

At that moment the bell above the door resounded, and Jess stepped in, looking surprised when three pairs of eyes looked him up and down carefully, instead of the one that he expected.

"Hi," he drawled, making a face.

"Are you okay?" Rory asked, and when he responded with a nod, her relieved expression turned into a glare. Then she marched towards the curtain, obviously wanting him to follow. He did, sending Luke an apologetic look on his way.

"Go on," his uncle said. "It's Rory's turn to give you hell first."

When the teenagers disappeared, Lorelai sighed and picked up her purse. "Well, I'm going to go to work. Tell Rory to call me, okay?"

Luke nodded. "Thanks for... being here."

"Anytime, Luke."

* * *

They were standing in Luke's apartment, several feet away from each other. Jess's hands were in his pockets, his back slightly hunched, expecting a blow from no one other than his girlfriend, who's lips were turned into a thin line and arms across her chest.

"I'm listening," she started harshly.

He looked up at her and he felt his stomach tie into knots at the sight of the anger practically seething from her. "I'm sorry." Not that he was necessarily to blame for disappearing – that was the inanimate object conspiring against him – but it still felt like the right thing to say.

Or maybe not. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Jess," she said, but apparently she wasn't ready to let him speak yet, and the volume of her voice kept rising as she continued. "Where were you? Did you really think you can just disappear like that? Newsflash! You've got people who actually worry about you! Do you have any idea how stressful the last three hours were for me? And it's been even longer for Luke! You know, maybe it's about time you caught up on your technology, Mr. I'm-too-cool-to-have-a –cell-phone!"

"Rory-"

One of her hands was on her forehead now, and she raised the other one to look at her watch. "You know what, I don't want to hear it right now. I have to get to school to make my last three classes... I'm glad you're okay, Jess," she said, slamming the door behind herself.

* * *

Lorelai was rummaging through the refrigerator in seemingly futile search for something edible when the phone rang. She took out a box of left-over Thai food, smelled it, and threw it away, deeming it uneatable.

And then she heard her own voice on the answering machine.

"_You've almost reached Lorelai Gilmore and Lorelai Gilmore. We're both young, beautiful and witty, so be careful with specifying which one of us you so desperately wanted to talk to. Beep."_

The automatic beep sound followed shortly after.

"_Hi_," the caller started hesitantly. _"I tried your cell phone but I think it's off. I know you're mad at me, Rory, but the whole thing is really silly and I want to explain. I'm slaving away until 10 o'clock 'cause Luke is off somewhere but I'll come o-"_

At this point Lorelai finally got to the phone and picked it up. "Jess, hi!"

"_Lorelai,_" he sounded, unsurprisingly, taken aback. "_I forgot you like to take your time with picking up the phone."_

"Rory's not home yet."

"_I gathered."_

"So, what does 'really silly' mean in Jess Mariano's world?"

"_Car trouble in the middle of nowhere."_

"Well, that is silly," she admitted. "Jess, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you've got to look after yourself better. Rory was a bundle of nerves this morning, and it was horrible, horrible watching her like that. And Luke was freaking out. More than he was freaking out when he pushed you off the bridge – heck – more than when he bought that building last year. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for them, because they care about you an awful lot. Try to be responsible, Jess. Otherwise, I'll be after you, I swear."

"_Aren't you anyways?"_ he dared to tease.

"Don't cross the line, kid. Who left the house last night, letting two certain teenagers do whatever they wanted?"

"_Right,"_ he cleared his throat, almost wanting to thank her for that, but finding it too awkward. _"Just tell Rory I called, okay?"_

"Okay. Bye, hoodlum."

* * *

Rory entered the diner around 9:45, and found there Kirk, drinking a glass of something that appeared to be milk, and Jess in the middle of wiping the tables.

"Hi," she said in a small voice.

Kirk responded with a, "Good evening, Rory," Jess only looked up at her and kept his gaze on her even when she looked down at her shoes, until they both sat down on two neighbouring stools at the counter.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said, shyly looking up to meet his eyes. "And then stormed out. You scared me, though."

"That wasn't my intention."

"I know, but intentions or lack thereof didn't make much difference this morning... So, what happened?"

"The car ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, the gas station in Woodbury was closed so I went back and slept."

"Where?"

"Backseat."

"Oh."

"And then, before everything got sorted it got pretty late."

She caught his hand and laced their fingers, he leaned slightly towards her and Kirk cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, are you going to kiss?" the man asked seriously. "Because I could seat in that chair, facing the window. Of course, it is quite possible that I'm still going to see your refle-"

"Kirk, would you just go home?" Jess asked irritably.

"Are you throwing me out?"

"Yes. It's late, I need to close up."

"Okay, I'm gonna go," Kirk got up and put on his jacket. He took a few steps towards the door, but then he stopped and turned to face the teenagers who kept their eyes on him. "What's it like?" he asked somewhat nervously.

"What?" Jess asked in a high-pitched voice, grimacing.

"Kissing."

"Go home, Kirk."

"My mother always told me it's unhealthy."

"Kirk!"

"I'd just like a man's perspective. I was always a rather sheltered child, I had to pick things up on the streets for myself. And now I'm asking you because it seemed like a less awkward option than asking Taylor. Obviously I was wrong. Okay. Goodnight."

The door closed and Jess turned to grinning Rory.

"We need to find him a girl," she giggled.

"Jeez."

"To finish our conversation – was there really no one in your way all night that could have given you a ride to town?"

He shot her a quizzical look.

"What?" she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Ah... There was someone but getting a ride with them wasn't really an option," he said, running his fingers through his hair.

"Well, who was it? Some fat, smelly lorry driver? Miss Patty? Who?"

"The soon to be Mr and Mrs Forester. Patty drives?"

"Not legally, but yes. You ran into Dean and Lindsey?" she asked with disbelief. "What were they doing – wait, do I want to know?"

"Well, they told me they're waiting for marriage, so they were just making out." His voice gained an amused quality now, and she smiled too. "Dean was shirtless though." At hearing this, Rory involuntarily slid off her stool, staggered when she landed on her feet and he steadied her. Laughing quietly, she stood between his legs and rested her head on his chest. He made a surprised face, and it only strengthened when he felt that she was shaking with laughter now. "You know, it isn't _that_ funny."

"Oh yes, it is," she answered, looking up at him, and bursting with another fit of giggles. "_I've_ never seen him shirtless and I was with him for two years."

He smirked, running his hand up and down her arm. "You win the prize for the most impassionate relationship in the state."

"Well, it sounds like he's got it better with Lindsey. And I know for a fact that we do."

"Oh yeah?" he teased.

"Yeah."

Her hand cupped his cheek and their lips met, hungrily at first, letting the whole day be drowned in the kiss, until they ran out of breath and slowed down, resting their foreheads against each other and letting the kiss linger.

"Please don't run again, Jess. Come to me if something like that ever happens again. Not that I think Luke would steal your car again-"

He cut her off with another kiss.

"I have to go study, Jess," she whispered, finding it rather hard when his arms were still around her.

"On a Friday night?"

"Yeah," she pulled away hesitantly. "I'm going prom dress shopping with Mom tomorrow, I have to get some more stuff done tonight for my final on Monday. I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast."

"I'll be here."

"You better. Goodnight, Jess."

"Night."


	6. The Problems Of Us And Them

A/N: Phew. This was a hard one. I lost count on how many times I re-wrote the final RJ conversation. Plus I'm very nervous about messing with the LL story, but I think I will dare to have some fun with it. Scary stuff. So, you know, give the chapter some love. Special thanks to NotThereNeverAround for being hugely helpful and directing my brain in the right ways!

Disclaimer: GG not mine.

* * *

"Jess," she sing-songed, shaking his arm lightly. He didn't even stir, so she lowered her head to his ear. "Jess," she whispered. "Wake up." Still no movement. "Is this some sort of a ploy to... you know? Because you are getting up. Now." No reaction. Frustrated, and feeling rather wicked but thinking of it as the last resort, she kissed his jaw and then gently nibbled on his ear. He finally moved, still through sleep, and brought his hand up to swat away this thing that wasn't letting him sleep in peace on a Saturday morning. The surprise on his face when he realised that it was Rory who was waking him up was precious, and she grinned in turn.

"Hey," he said in a husky voice that almost made her forget about shopping plans with her mother.

"Morning," she replied, pressing her lips against his.

"You know, your waking up methods are way nicer than Luke's."

"You want me to pass my knowledge to him?"

Jess only groaned and flipped around to bury his face in a pillow.

"Jess, come on, you're going to suffocate. You said you'd be in the diner this morning. And I was nice enough to give you some extra sleep time, so I already had breakfast, but you could still serve me my second cup of coffee... Please?"

"Alright," he mumbled, sitting up. "Give me five minutes."

"Okay," she got up and headed towards the apartment door. Then she stopped in her tracks and looked at him intently, somewhat shyly, biting her lip.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, unconsciously licking her lips. "Your bed head is cute."

And with that she exited the apartment, leaving him too dumbfounded to do what he wanted at that moment, which was to go after her and drag her back to bed.

Exactly nine minutes later, he pulled back the curtain that separated the diner from the stairs to the apartment, and found Rory sitting at the counter, with a book in front of her face.

"What are you reading?" he asked, automatically taking the coffee pot in his hand.

"My chemistry textbook."

"Ah," he gave her a knowing nod, then looked around. "Where's Lorelai?"

"She had a skirt she wanted to return and she forgot it at home, so she had to go back. She'll be out front any minute to get me."

"So the coffee is to go?"

"Two please," she smiled gratefully. "Oh, I wanted to ask you. Can I borrow your copy of _Of Mice And Men_? Not now, just next week. It will probably come up for on my paper on the Great Depression literature."

"Don't you have a copy?"

"Of course I do, I just need your notes," she explained casually and turned around to look at the window. "Mom is here, I've got to go."

"I'll give you the book tomorrow," he said with a nod.

"You can throw in _The Grapes Of Wrath_, too," she grinned. Getting up from her stool, she gave him a quick kiss and walked towards the door, bumping into a blonde who was just entering.

"Oh! Hi... hi, Lindsey," she stuttered with a rather unconvincing smile.

"Hi," the other girl responded in a similar manner.

"Congratulations. On the engagement."

"I uh-"

"I have to go, my mom is waiting for me in the car," Rory said, and left, feeling her cheeks burning in embarrassment for the uncomfortable exchange.

Inside the diner, Lindsey hesitated for a second before approaching the counter where Jess was currently serving someone. She sat down on a stool next to the register and gave him a little wave, receiving a nod in response.

"What can I get you?" he asked a moment later.

"Just ice tea, please."

He served her, opened his book, but then Luke called him to come into the storage room and he disappeared.

Lindsey sipped her drink, occasionally stealing glances to her right.

When the two diner men crossed her line of vision, carrying a box each to the kitchen, she raised her eyes to Jess.

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

He raised his eyebrows, took a few more steps to drop the box in the kitchen and returned to the counter straight away, looking at her expectantly, in a way that slightly intimidated her.

"I just... wanted to apologise for the other night. You shouldn't have to see that."

"I'll live," Jess replied simply.

"Yeah?" Lindsey asked uncertainly.

"Scarred, but I will."

"I feel so stupid about the whole thing. I also... owe you a thank you." Jess didn't respond verbally, only frowned. "For what you said," she continued. "I didn't think about the engagement like that before. And you were right, it was rushed and I shouldn't have said yes to Dean. Not yet. So... we talked about it and we're... taking a little break now."

"Huh."

Lindsey looked down at her glass and fiddled with it before looking back up at Jess again. "I think he might still be hung up on Rory."

Jess scoffed and looked away. "And you realise it after how many months of dating him?" he said a little too harshly, and surprisingly, felt a pang of guilt seeing her deflated expression. "Listen," he sighed. "He broke up with her twice. He went out with you and he _proposed_ to you. If he did it all whilst pining for Rory, then he's a douche." Not that Jess ever doubted that. He was beginning to get really annoyed with the whole conversation; he didn't talk this much to people he didn't particularly care for.

Lindsey apparently caught up on that. "I better go."

He nodded in agreement. The girl was half way to the door when he spoke up. "Have a happy break!" he called out with feigned cheerfulness, making her look down in uneasiness.

He cursed this whole town for getting mixed up with everyone else's business, and, oh joy, dragging him down with them.

* * *

"Mom?" Rory asked, standing outside a changing room in which her mother was trying on a rather large amount of clothing. "I don't want to sound mean, but please hurry, we came here to find me a prom dress. You already bought two t-shirts and a jacket, I have nothing. And I have to study, remember?"

"Stop whining, daughter dearest," Lorelai answered, drawing back the curtain. "How do you like the sweater?"

"It's great, but I really doubt you'll need it for the summer."

"Ooh, honey. What if we end up sleeping on a bench while we're in Dublin? A sweater might come in handy."

"Fine, get it. Leave the dozen other sweaters that are in your closet heartbroken."

Lorelai sighed dramatically, withdrawing to the changing room again. "You are such a spoilsport sometimes. Fine. I won't get the sweater. But I'm trying these jeans on."

"Go on, then," Rory gave her assent. She stared ahead blankly and bit her lip, thinking how to approach a subject that has been on her mind as she was spending the day with her mother. "Mom?"

"I don't like them, they're too loose at the waist!"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"I haven't seen Alex for a while."

Lorelai remained suspiciously quiet for a moment, even the shuffling sounds due to changing stopped. "That wasn't a question," she finally answered.

"Okay. Where is Alex?"

The elder Gilmore drew back the curtain and exited the changing room with a pile of clothes in her hands.

"Now?"

"Mom. You're not getting away with not answering me," Rory stated accusingly. "Did you guys break up?"

"No, we didn't," Lorelai responded with feigned easiness.

"Then why is it that the last date you went on was three weeks ago?"

"We're both very busy. You know, the fire at the Inn and all."

"You re-watched the first six seasons of _ER_ recently."

"Okay, so maybe my priorities are a little out of the ordinary-"

"You know, I tell you everything. I think I deserve to know whether you are in a relationship or not."

"I... don't know," Lorelai answered uneasily, steering her daughter out of the shop. "We didn't break up, we're just drifting apart, I suppose."

"But I thought you really liked him."

"'Like' being the key word, hon. We've had our fun, it was good, but we both feel like there's no future in it. So we're letting it... fade away," Lorelai explained. "We'll end it officially before we go to Europe, I promise."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So, how are you and Jess doing?" the mother changed the subject quickly.

"Good," Rory said, still thinking about what her mother told her.

"Good?" Lorelai tilted her head.

Rory finally caught up with the conversation and smiled. "Amazing, actually."

"Oh, wow."

"I know. A week ago, after the party, I was so scared we would break up. And then things happened and it was like a wake up call. We're definitely doing more of the talking now."

"Ironic."

"Well..."

"My baby girl is in a proper, grown up relationship, with the sex _and_ the talking."

Rory gave her mother a thoughtful smile that lacked any humour. "One of us should," she grumbled, feeling guilty as soon as the words escaped her mouth and a shadow descended on her mother's face. Lorelai, with an expression of utter shock, took a few slow steps towards a nearby bench and sat on it. Rory, berating herself inwardly, followed and stood in front of her mother, who blatantly avoided all eye contact. "Mom, I didn't mean that."

"What did you mean then?" Lorelai asked flatly.

"I'm... I'm saying that I'm moving out in the fall. And I'm worried. I'm worried about living away from you, and I'm worried about you being on your own. I would just... I would just love for you to find someone you could be happy with for more than six months, you know?"

"You've been spending too much time with Emily Gilmore," Lorelai stated pointedly.

"Oh come on, Mom, Grandma has nothing to do with it."

"Someone for more than six months, you say?"

"Yes."

"Huh."

Rory raised her brows in amusement and sat down next to Lorelai, who turned her head to look around the mall. "Rory, look at that dress," she started a new, safe topic, pointing to a rather shapeless, dark olive gown in a shop window.

The younger Gilmore frowned. "What about it?"

"It's perfect!"

"You want me to wear a potato sack to my prom?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"So your boyfriend won't find you attractive?" Lorelai more asked than stated.

Rory rolled her eyes, and with a few confident steps, she entered the shop, leaving her mother behind, staring at her back.

"So you'll do it?" she shouted, catching up with her daughter, who approached a rack with a long, navy blue frock. She gasped. "Classic, elegant and innocent enough. I love it!"

"I love it, too."

"So will Jess."

"Triple win!"

* * *

"Good news," Lorelai addressed Jess, sitting at the counter while he poured her coffee. "We got Rory a dress. Or should I say The Dress."

"Oh yeah?" he asked with little interest.

"Yeah."

"She went home?"

"She did. She has her history final first thing Monday morning."

"I kno-"

"Jess!" Luke called out, holding the phone in his hand. "Rory wants to talk to you, she said she'll call the upstairs in two minutes."

Jess tilted his head towards the curtain, sending Lorelai a look that could almost be deemed apologetic, then he set down the coffee pot and she gave him a small smile before he disappeared on the staircase.

"Don't take too long!" Luke called after him, standing in front of Lorelai. "Hi."

"Hi."

"You want anything with that coffee?"

"I'm good. We ate some awful burrito-like thing in the mall." She glanced towards the curtain, smiled sadly, then looked down on the counter. "I'm pathetic."

Luke examined her hunched posture confusedly, automatically taking on the role of the consoler. "Your eating habits, yes. You? No."

"I am. I'm jealous of my daughter's relationship, it doesn't get more pathetic than that."

"You are jealous of Rory and Jess?" Luke inquired, his confusion only growing.

"Of what they have. The whole being in love thing. That look she gets in her eyes when she talks about him. And he almost smiles at the mention of her."

"I know. It's horrifying."

"Oh, I agree."

"They got lucky."

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed.

He looked at her for a few more seconds before going to serve another customer. When he returned a few moments later to put some pie on a plate, Lorelai caught his gaze again.

"Hey Luke? You know, next Friday is prom night."

"Yeah, I know," he replied distractedly.

"Do you have any plans with Nicole?"

"Uh, no, she'll be out of town for the entire week on business. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking that it would be safest to leave your apartment to our two lovebirds."

Luke's eye widened as he asked his next question. "Are you telling me you want to leave them here and let them have sex?" he whispered frantically, making sure that no one was listening in on their conversation.

"Well, they are both legal now so we can't exactly stop them. We can either pretend to be okay with this, let them do what they like and know that they are being careful, or we can get in their way, risk resentment and a have them going at it – I don't need to spell it out for you, do I?" she cut herself off. "Trust me, this is better."

Luke didn't say anything for a minute, and his face revealed that he didn't like whatever he was thinking about. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Leave the apartment to them and come over for a movie night. God knows you have a lot to catch up on," she added as an afterthought.

"Why not the other way round?"

"What?" Lorelai asked incredulously, trying to hide that her mind went to dirty places.

"Leaving them your house and having a movie night here?"

"I don't want to leave them my house!"

"Then why should I leave them my apartment?"

She crossed her arms on her chest and grimaced. "Fine. I will come over here. But only because of the proximity of food and coffee!" she said, hopped off her stool and took a few steps towards the door. "See you!"

Meanwhile, upstairs in Luke's apartment, Jess plopped on his bed and picked up the phone after the second ring.

"Hello."

"Hi," Rory welcomed him rather hesitantly.

"What's up?"

"I uh... you know how you always asked me to tell you when anything happens with Dean?"

"Yeah?" he drawled, grimacing. There was decidedly too much of that guy in his and Rory's relationship, particularly in the past week. If Jess were to follow his instincts, he would kick the Bag Boy's ass again. And quite possibly again. Instead, he brought his mind back to what his girlfriend was saying.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you, before you hear it from somebody else, that I kind of had a fight with him. In public."

"Rory and Dean style," he commented.

"It appears so," she said sadly. "Jess, when we talked last night, why did you fail to mention that you broke them up?"

His frown deepened as her tone started to unnerve him. "Uh... 'cause I didn't?"

"That's not what Dean said."

"Oh, here we go again," he drawled bitterly.

"That's not what I meant," Rory's voice faltered. "I just spent ten minutes arguing with him about... well, you, mostly; it cut into my biology homework time, I just want to know what happened exactly."

"I only stated the facts, if they couldn't deal with them, it really isn't my problem."

"Facts?"

"That he proposed to her right after fighting me over you. It's sick, Rory, and don't tell me he was just being a friend and protecting you, there's more to it and we know it!" Jess said forcefully, losing control of the volume of his voice in the process.

"I... yeah. If that's any consolation, I did tell him that his involvement was not appreciated and he should mind his own business."

"You did?" Jess frowned in surprise.

"Of course I did. He's mad at you for ruining, I quite, 'two of his very serious relationships'. Which is nuts, I don't know what he's thinking. Besides, he gave me another one of those speeches on how evil you are and how you're going to lead me astray. It made me mad. I made an actual effort to be nice to Lindsey and about Lindsey every single time, and he just thinks that he can come to me and badmouth you? I lost it."

Jess's jaw dropped just a tiny bit. "So you yelled at Dean?"

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Just give me a moment to enjoy the concept."

"Jess," she scolded. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this in the first place, I'm just angry with the whole situation... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get like that."

"Hey, it's okay. You can vent."

"And, I'm so, so embarrassed for losing my temper like that," she mumbled into the phone. "I don't know what's wrong with me today. I totally snapped at Mom, too, it's just," she groaned, "not a very good day... I don't... I don't want you to get hopeful, think that I'll hate Dean now. He's a good guy, it's just... He has no idea. None of them do and they still judge."

"That's Stars Hollow for you-" he tried to cut in, but Rory was clearly on the roll and ranted on.

"They think I'm some mindless little girl who gas to be protected all the time. What will they do when I go to Yale? Set up a camp outside my dorm?"

"With Dean as the chief watchman," Jess added sarcastically.

She grunted at the other end of the line. "I don't get it. How can someone go from getting engaged to broken up a week later?" she asked gloomily, her train of thought taking an unexpected turn.

"Well, technically, it's just a break, not a break up."

"How do you know?"

"Lindsey came into the diner today. You saw her."

"Yeah. Oh... Oh my God! I congratulated her on the engagement this morning!"

"Rory, relax, you couldn't have known."

"This is so messed up. Aren't ex's supposed to be out of your life when you break up? And now not only me but you as well are in the middle of my ex and his fiancée. Ex-fiancée. Ugh."

"Again, this is Stars Hollow, also known as hell on earth."

"Don't say that," she said almost pleadingly.

"You agreed with me two minutes ago."

"Yes, it annoys me occasionally, but it's still home."

"To some."

"You still don't feel at home here?" He didn't say a word and every second of silence seemed to prickle her. "You really want to get out of here, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," he answered truthfully, but being honest didn't feel good this time; as soon as the word was out he regretted it. He opened his mouth, but any sort of correction didn't come out.

"I've got to go study, Jess. Bye."

And she hang up.


	7. These Nights Are Made For Talking

A/N: I'm trying really hard to maintain some sort of a balance between the angst and the fluff. But I hope you don't mind the fluff, considering that in canon the end of season 3 lacked it entirely.

Disclaimer: I own a Saturday in bed due to a cold. Nothing else.

* * *

A week passed.

They hadn't exactly been avoiding each other, it just somehow happened that they didn't spend much time together. Not alone, anyway. She was busy with her finals and he didn't dare to interrupt her. They saw each other every day in the diner, talked, but there was unresolved tension, keeping things from being as playful as before.

Until late on Monday night, after a really tiring day with two exams for Rory, he knocked on her window.

"Hey."

"Hi."

Silence. Painful, awkward one. It made her want to cry, but she wouldn't let herself. "I think we need to talk, Jess."

"Yeah," he nodded, not quite meeting her eyes.

"How about you come in, then?" Rory suggested. Skilfully, he jumped up, straightened his arms and climbed over the window sill into the room.

He bit the inside of his cheek, wondering how to approach the topic in the right way when Rory spoke.

"Can I start?" she asked and he nodded. She bit her lip, looked away from him and whispered, "What about... what about 22.8 miles?"

"About that," he started and watched her cross her arms on her chest protectively. "I got a job."

"Oh?"

"Bookstore, part time, pays a little more than Wal-Mart, plus it's just, you know, nicer."

"That's great, Jess," she said, not quite able to smile yet.

"Aren't you going to ask me where it is?" he asked, a small smirk emerging on his lips.

"Where is it?" she repeated, looking at him intently.

"Well, there is this town, you might have heard of it," he stalled. "It's called New Haven."

"New Haven, Connecticut?"

"Yup."

"Are you serious?" He only raised his eyebrows in response. "Jess!" she exclaimed and a second later she was hanging down his neck, hugging him fiercely.

"Shh, you'll wake up your mother," he reminded her, wrapping his arms around her.

"You didn't have to do this for me."

"Hey, it gets me out of this town for half a day," he said lightly. It was a bittersweet confession but she was glad he said it.

"I love you, you know that?" she told him quietly right into his ear.

Jess ran his hands down her arms to catch her palms in his. "Back at you, Gilmore. And yes, I may have heard the rumour. What are you doing now?"

"Actually, I was planning to go to sleep," she motioned down at the pyjamas she was already wearing.

"Sleep at 11 o'clock during finals? Really?" he teased.

"I'm exhausted, I've had two today. And I have only two left on Wednesday, so I think I deserve my eight hours of sleep tonight."

"I'll let you get to it, then," he disentangled himself from her completely.

"Stay."

"What?"

"Stay. Just to sleep."

"Okay," he agreed, somewhat sheepishly. "I'll have to sneak out when you fall asleep though, I don't want to freak out Luke again."

"Okay. Well, make yourself at home," she motioned around her bedroom. "I just have to brush my teeth."

She exited the room, quietly closing the door behind. Jess, in the meantime, walked over to the Hi-Fi and browsed through a shelf of CDs. He picked a Sigur Rós record, deeming it sleep-friendly music, and put it on. Personally, he could happily sleep with Guns N' Roses on, he just suspected that it would be too hardcore for Rory. He wasn't sure. He never slept with her before.

Huh.

And what did 'making himself at home' entail, anyway? At home he wouldn't be sleeping in his jeans. He took his jumper off, leaving a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans on, as a reminder to himself that they were supposed to, in fact, sleep.

When Rory entered her room, she found him sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed. She gave him a small smile, let her hair out of the ponytail and sat on the bed herself, getting under the covers.

"Are you just going to sit there?" she asked him after a moment when he didn't move.

"I like it here."

"Jess. You've been in my bed before," she said, smiling amusedly at his sudden shyness.

"Not like this."

"What, you're only comfortable in my bed without your clothes on?" she laughed and drew the duvet back for him to get in. Then she raised her eyebrows expectantly, and he finally kicked his shoes off and lay down next to her, letting her draw the duvet across both of them. The bed was small so they lay very close side by side, their fingers automatically interlocking. "See, this is nice," Rory sighed contentedly.

"Mm-hmm."

"Very old-married-couple-like," she grinned.

"I'm pretty sure old married couples have bigger beds," Jess stated, then turned his head to give Rory a deep kiss.

"And uh... they probably don't do that either," she stated, looking slightly dazed when he pulled away.

"Probably," he smirked and shifted back to lie on his back.

It was too pathetic to admit it, but at the present time he actually lived for those little moments with her. They were the only occasions when he was fully able to forget about all this stuff just sitting constantly at the back of his mind, like what, if anything, he was supposed to do about the visit from Jimmy. Or better yet – what the actual fuck was he doing with his life.

"So when do you start at the bookstore?"

"In two weeks," he answered absently, too concentrated on memorising all the details that added up to the cosiness of the present moment.

"Aw, I won't be here by then," she pouted.

He didn't answer, racking his brain for something to turn the conversation to but she cut in his train of thought, squeezing his hand and whispering, "The summer will pass quickly, Jess. Nothing will change."

She was naive for thinking that and he knew it. After the summer, they were supposed to be adults. "You'll go to Yale in the fall."

"And you'll work in New Haven. If anything, that's a change for better," she declared sprightly.

He decided to follow her optimistic way of thinking and smirked. "Hey, do you know what your dorm will be like yet?"

"There's a common room with two double bedrooms."

"Damn."

She giggled against his shoulder.

"You know, for the first time I'm starting to think that I'm actually going to miss Chilton," she paused. "I must be crazy, I'm saying out loud that I will miss Paris," she mumbled.

"Ah, I'm sure Yale is full of insane people you could befriend," he joked.

"Yeah," Rory smiled, snuggling closer and closing her eyes.

"Falling asleep?" She gave him a little nod. "Goodnight, then," Jess leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. He tried to break away but she pulled him back in by the collar of his shirt, letting go after several seconds.

Readjusting her pillow, now with eyes wide open, she asked casually, "_Madame Bovary_ or _The Three Musketeers_?"

"Sleep."

"I can't, you woke me up."

"I was trying to give you a goodnight kiss!"

"Well, you failed," Rory declared and repeated, "So? _Madame Bovary_ or _The Three Musketeers_?"

"How are they supposed to compare?" Jess frowned.

"They aren't, I just want to take one book from each country Mom and I are going to and for France it's between those two."

"And those books are going to follow you how?"

"In my backpack."

"Then I would strongly advise you against taking either of those."

"But French people don't write short books!"

"They do," he stated with conviction.

"Name one."

"Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt."

"I've heard about him," she said thoughtfully.

"I should hope so 'cause I distinctly remember telling you about him."

"Very likely."

"I'll lend you something then."

"Thanks," she grinned.

He merely shrugged. "So, what other dilemmas do you have?"

"Ah... Kafka or Kundera? I was thinking _Trial_ or _The Joke_, I haven't read them yet."

"Hard one."

"I know! Both reasonably sho-"

Then the door creaked and Lorelai peaked in. "Rory, are you asleep yet – Oh my God!"

The elder Gilmore now threw the door wide open and with a rather horrified expression looked at the couple in bed. Rory, in the meantime, squeezed her eyes shut and Jess stared at the ceiling, waiting for hell to freeze over.

"You are in her bed," Lorelai addressed Jess in a sinister tone.

"Mom, we're just talking!" Rory assured hastily.

"Clothes on?"

"Yes!"

"Then at least sit up so I can see your faces properly," the mother ordered weakly and brought her hands to her face. "I'm really trying here, kids, but this is freaking me out."

Rory and Jess exchanged quizzical looks before the girl jumped out of the bed to stand next to her mother.

"This?"

"This," Lorelai waved her arm around. "Everything. The two of you and sex at eighteen under my roof. Sex, Rory! You can't even say the word! Then there's the two of you being sickeningly in love, and this look he gets in his eyes when he looks at you," she pointed at Jess, "which might just mean that I was wrong about him. Call me Jerry Lee Lewis, I'm never wrong! And that's just the beginning of it all. You are going off to college, kid. And there is the Dragonfly, which I don't know if we can actually afford and we're leaving for Europe in ten days and – oh my God I just realised that we need to get adapters because we can't not have electricity while we are in the UK and in Italy," she finished, deflated.

"Okay, one thing at a time, please," Rory proposed, putting her hand on her mother's shoulder. "Didn't we talk enough about the sex thing already?"

"Oh, you actually can say the word," Lorelai remarked faintly. "I've talked with you. Not with him. Do you know what you're doing, Jess?"

"What?" he screeched.

"Oh God, Mom, we really need to get some coffee into your system," Rory interrupted quickly, her face bright red. This time, unlike usually, Jess couldn't enjoy her blushing because his own ears were crimson, too.

"Uh, I'm just gonna..." he trailed off, taking a step towards the window.

"Door, Jess!" Lorelai reminded him pointedly.

"Right," he shuffled his feet before walking by them and kissing Rory lightly on the cheek, "G'night."

She gave him a small smile before he left the room and Lorelai called out, "You do remember you're taking my daughter to the prom on Friday?"

"I do!" his voice assured.

"Do you have the tuxedo sorted out?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Good!"

The door closed after him and Rory ducked to look her mother in the eye. "So, talk?" she suggested.

"Definitely. Not here though," Lorelai shuddered. "Kitchen."

"Okay. So what was that about the Dragonfly?"

* * *

"Oh good, you're home. I wanted to talk to you," Luke said, exiting the bathroom and seeing his nephew who just entered the apartment. Luke's statement surprised him. Firstly, it was midnight and Luke should already have been asleep, so Jess was hoping to just get in bed with Bukowski and forget about the embarrassing moment with Lorelai. Secondly, he and Luke hadn't really talked since that night when Luke gave his car back. To Jess's surprise, his uncle never told him off for his disappearing act. They narrowed their communication down to the complete minimum – exchanging orders in the diner. Luke didn't even have many chances to tell Jess to get back to work, because he worked with shocking eagerness. It was annoying, really.

"Okay," the younger man said cautiously.

"Sit down," Luke motioned to a chair and sat down himself. "So, I was thinking..."

"Never a good sign."

"... that you haven't seen your mom for a while."

"A year," Jess stated drily, and his uncle didn't fail to notice the sharp look growing on his face.

"Well... don't you want to go and visit her for a few weeks?"

"So that we can both rejoice in the fact that I flunked out of school? Thanks, I'll pass."

"Jess-"

"What are you getting at?" Jess snapped. "If you want me to get out of your hair so you can spend some time with Nicole, just say so and I'll do so. But don't drag Liz into this!"

"Fine. It's not like that though. Actually, Nicole and I have been thinking about going on a trip."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And Caesar hadn't gone on vacation this year, so I was thinking that we could close up the diner, but I can't exactly leave you here alone with nothing to do."

"I'm a big boy, I can manage my own time." Luke gave him a doubtful look. "I got another job today. I'll be busy," Jess reassured. He was actually planning to resign from his Wal Mart job and keep working in the diner, but this was something he'd have to factor in.

"What job?"

"Bookstore in New Haven."

"New Haven, huh?"

"Yup," Jess nodded, trying to hide his uneasiness under his uncle's penetrating gaze. He hated when his intentions were clear to the third party.

"That's a long way to travel every day."

"It's twenty miles Luke, it's not that bad."

"If you say so. When do you start?"

"In two weeks time. When are you leaving for your trip?"

"Well, it's nothing certain yet, but probably next Friday. Three weeks."

"You should go."

"You think?"

"Sure. When was the last time you went on vacation?"

"Two years ago."

"With who?"

"My fishing rods."

"Well, you should go. With an actual person this time."

"Now you're just trying to get rid of me."

"What on earth would make you think that, Uncle Luke?" Jess asked teasingly.

"Whatever. Promise me you won't get into any trouble. You'll go to work, you'll read, you won't engage into any major human interaction. And no pranks, Jess, understood?"

"Understood," he confirmed with a smirk.

"I'll think this through, then. I might have to ask Miss Patty to check up on you."

Jess look turn into one of terror at the notion. "You would not leave me alone in one apartment with Patty," he said fearfully.

"You're right, I wouldn't. You could move in with Kirk and his mother for those three weeks."

"Hey, this might be my last chance for the ultimate _Home Alone_ experience. Don't ruin that for me."

"You'll be good," Luke said forcefully.

"I swear," Jess mocked with his hand on his heart. "Now stop babbling and call Nicole to confirm."

And he did.

About half an hour later they were both in their beds with the lights out, but the lack of snoring indicated that both uncle and nephew were still awake. Jess felt unsettled after the whole day and his thoughts were wondering.

"Stop that," Luke grumbled from his spot across the apartment.

Jess stopped tapping his fingers on the wooden frame of his bed.

"Luke?" he said after a minute. "What do you know about Jimmy?"

There was a long, laud pause before Luke sighed and answered. "I don't think I'm the one you should be having this conversation with."

"You're the only one I _can_ be having this conversation with, since my mother always turned hysterical when that name was mentioned."

"Really?" the uncle asked incredulously.

"Really."

"Wow. You asked her about him?"

"A long time ago."

Luke sighed loudly enough for Jess to hear it.

"I didn't know him all that well. The first time I met him was when Liz brought him here for our father's funeral. They seemed good together. But then... I don't know. We didn't get on too well. I didn't think he was good enough for her and he had this whole smartass attitude that made him really hard to talk to," he chuckled sadly. "Lizzie said he wasn't like that around her, that he was really good to her-"

"Oh great," Jess grumbled at that, restlessly wriggling in his bed. It was hitting too close to home and apparently Luke sensed it.

"You are not your father, Jess."

"How do you know?"

"You don't run when things get bad."

"I want to."

"But you don't. You hate this place yet you actually begged me to let you stay here because you didn't want to abandon the person you care for. And while I don't like the immediate reason for making you stay, you did the right thing. You might look like Jimmy, you might listen to the same freak music that he did, but thank God, being a coward and a loser doesn't run in the DNA. And if you believe that, you won't be running a hot dog stand twenty years from now," Luke finished forcefully.

They didn't say a word more. Both kind of embarrassed by the need to bring this up and by how emotionally exhausting it turned out to be, those few minutes of the conversation; they fell into understanding silence. And while Luke was trying to calm down, deeply breathing in and out, his nephew bit his lip and buried his head in a pillow, desperate to never let anyone know that his eyes, in that moment, were in a very wet place.


	8. Hold Me Tight And Fear Not

A/N: You know what I love about this scenario? That in a way that I didn't plan at all, Rory's growing up. Jess's growth I planned, but it turns out that being at his side at this difficult time, Rory learns a lot, too. Like – about the relative importance of loving someone vs. what people think about you. I'm kind of proud. Anyway. This is an uncharacteristically long chapter for this story (took me some two months to write) but that's because it's prom night and there was quite a bit to fit. I hope it rises up to your expectations, and, you know, reviews are very, very much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I totally own their prom night since I've never actually read another story with one (in High School, that is, I've read some with Jess trying to make up for it years later). I'm kidding. I don't own even that.

* * *

Lorelai pulled the jeep over in front of Luke's Diner and turned to face her daughter. Her beautiful, smart kid, whose relatively low cut prom dress made it painfully clear to her mother that she was no longer a baby.

Lorelai, of course, knew it, but she didn't exactly appreciate the reminder. Though she was, at the same time, proud as hell.

And trying not to laugh at the fact that it was her daughter who was picking up her hoodlum boyfriend to this event, supposedly focal to the life of every teenager.

"Rory, this is not right! He's supposed to knock on the door, make some awkward conversation with me before you come out, and you stare at each other and I snap you out of your eye-sex and I take a really cute picture that you will find embarrassing years on from now."

"Mom, you know that was our deal. He wears a tux but you don't see him in it."

"But that was meant to be the highlight of my night! Compensate for the hell I'm going to go through sitting at dinner with my parents, all on my own! You get to go to the prom but I get no entertainment whatsoever? Not fair! Besides, I have spies so his attempts to hide from me will be futile, anyway."

"I'll try to get him in a picture," Rory laughed. "No promises though."

"Thank you," Lorelai grinned.

"So, you have a Rory-less night, did you make any plans?" the younger Gilmore asked, checking her hair in the mirror.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Lorelai faked surprise. "Dinner with my parents, then movie night with Luke," she said lightly.

Rory momentarily froze. "Movie night with Luke?"

"Yes."

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

"But... he's dating Nicole!"

"It's not a date, it's a friends thing! Friends have movie nights!"

"Uh, not Luke!"

"Well," she paused, at a loss for words. She really didn't want to explain to her daughter the whole elaborate plan to leave the house empty for the night. She didn't want to appear too supportive, especially when she had to force herself to be. Besides, with every passing minute she was doubting more and more whether that was the actual reason. "Luke needs to catch up on his movies. And you have to admit, I am the best person to do it with. So, yes, I'm going over to Luke's."

"Okay," Rory said with a frown.

"And, you know, we really do have a lot to watch, so I might have to be there till the wee hours of the morning..." Lorelai trailed off, waiting for her daughter to realise what she was talking about.

"What was that?"

"What?"

"That... Wee hours of the morning," Rory mimicked.

"Oh, that. My Scottish accent. I've been practising," Lorelai waved it off. "Anyway, back to the topic, kid! I'll be at Luke's!"

"Oh... does that mean that Jess might not be able to sleep tonight?"

"That might be the case."

"Well, the house is big," Rory started playing along. "It might be for the best if he sleeps there."

Lorelai smirked. "I trust you too much," she sighed dramatically. "Teenage kids are not meant to be trusted."

"Thank you, Mom," Rory hugged her mother. "I'll call you when we get home."

"Good. Have fun, kid."

"You too, Mom."

"And stay safe! And I mean at all stages of the night!" Lorelai bellowed.

Rory gave her mother a final smile, opened the door and got out of the jeep, taking a few short steps to the diner.

"Hi Rory," Luke welcomed her as soon as she entered. "Wow. You look... great," he said awkwardly, but with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Thanks, Luke," she smiled with equal awkwardness. "Is Jess ready? Paris and Jamie will be here any minute."

"The last time I saw him he was working on his bowtie. It was quite a treat," he chuckled. "Go on up."

She didn't need to be told twice. She barely drew back the curtain and hurried up the dark staircase, until Jess's voice coming from behind stopped her.

"Looking for someone?"

She actually thought about this before. Jess in a tux. It was kind of funny but still awfully appealing. She promised herself to appreciate it quietly, without any staring or drooling. But as she turned around, looked down and saw him leaning against a wall, his hands in the pockets of his slacks, butterflies launched a merciless attack on her stomach. She slowly made her way back down the stairs and stood in front of him.

"As a matter of fact, I was supposed to meet my boyfriend. Any idea what happened to him?"

"Had an encounter with the Fairy Godmother," Jess deadpanned, then lazily drew her closer for a kiss.

"Hi."

"Hi."

He took in the soft look in her eyes, the long lashes, the blush of excitement on her cheeks and couldn't resist kissing her again.

"Jess, stop this, you're making me reconsider going to this thing," she mumbled against his mouth a moment later.

Jess chuckled as his hands rested on her hips, moving his ministrations from her lips to her jaw, giving her a chance to catch her breath.

"Jess! Rory! Paris is – oh!"

The couple broke away, Jess looking down in irritation, Rory attempting to smile at Luke.

"I found him," she stated dumbly, motioning towards Jess.

"I can see that. Paris is out front, didn't you hear the honking?"

"Uh, well... we should go. Don't want to make Paris and Jamie wait."

"Great, uh... have a good time."

"Thanks, Uncle Luke," Jess said shortly, leading Rory out into the diner and in the direction of the door. Immediately, there were whistles of appreciation, loud comments and even camera flashes. Their very own red carpet experience. "Ah, jeez!"

"You clean up real nice, honey!"

"Smile pretty for the camera, sugars!" Babette echoed Patty, getting up from her seat and snapping all the possible shots she could get.

Rory hurried through the diner with Jess right behind her and both of them let out slight sighs of relief when they got out to the street.

As they approached a black Mercedes, Patty and Babette also left the diner, waving to the couple in passing, wishing them fun and saying that they were heading to Stars Hollow High. Jess rolled his eyes and opened the back door of the car.

"Hi Jamie!" Rory started, getting in. "Paris, why are you sitting in the front seat?"

The blonde turned her head. "This car fits five regularly-built people. There is four of us plus the driver, someone has to seat in the front seat," she explained as if to a five year old.

"Oh, now I feel bad for crushing on your romantic ride!"

"Too late Gilmore, get in and sit down. Jess," she acknowledged him.

"Paris."

"Right. Jamie – this is Jess, Jess – this is Jamie," Rory motioned between the two young men next to her.

"Nice to meet you, Jess," Jamie said and extended his hand.

With a bit of surprise, Jess shook it, wondering briefly when was the last time he actually shook someone's hand. "Yeah, you too."

Rory smiled at him, then addressed the other two. "Thank you so much for letting us come with you. It was kind of a last minute decision for us to come to the Chilton prom so... thanks."

"You're the Student Government Vice-President. It's pretty much your obligation to attend the prom."

"Whatever you say, Paris," Rory sighed.

* * *

The two couples entered the Wadsworth Mansion; Paris confidently, with Jamie in tow, and Rory with a rather intimidated expression, tightly holding the hand of the even more intimidated Jess. They didn't, however, get much time to evaluate their surroundings, as a blonde and a brunette in blue and green dresses respectively made their way towards them.

"Rory, Paris!"

"Madeline, Louise. Meet Jamie, my boyfriend," Paris started officially.

Madeline only replied with a quick, "we've heard a lot about you," before the two girls' eyes unashamedly wandered to the other boy in the group.

"And who are you?" Louise asked, sending Jess a seductive smile, one that he only raised his eyebrows at.

"Right, this is Jess, my boyfriend. Jess – Madeline, Louise," Rory motioned, getting a little unnerved by the way they kept staring at him. "And... where are your dates?"

"Oh, Allan just went to get something to drink," the brunette answered.

"Mine isn't here yet."

"Oh, how come?"

"He likes to make an entrance. Trust me, you'll be surprised when you see him," Louise grinned. "I think I need the ladies room. Come with me," she commanded the other girls.

"Oh, uh, I think I'm going to stay here," Rory tried.

"Oh no, you're coming," Madeline smiled, and caught her wrist, dragging her off towards the bathrooms, with Louise and Paris in tow.

Rory only managed to send Jess an apologetic look over her shoulder.

"Wow," Louise said as soon as the bathroom door closed behind the four of them.

"Where did you find him?" Madeline echoed, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Uh, I..." Rory stuttered, her face increasingly red, "We live in the same town."

"That's it, we're moving there," Louise declared. "How long have you been together?"

"About seven months now."

"You've been with him for seven months and we've never met him?"

"What happened to the tall guy? Dean, was it?"

"Is he a good kisser? He looks like he's a good kisser."

"Oh, cut it out, would you?" Paris chimed in irritably. "Things with Farmer John ended because of Kerouac here, they knew each other for a year before they started dating, he works at a diner, he reads, he wears a leather jacket, they're not sleeping together. Happy?"

"You're blushing," Louise observed, not lowering her eyes from Rory for one moment.

"I uh... blush easily... because of my complexion."

"Oh, we've known you for three years and we've never seen you so red," Madeline agreed.

"Oh my God. Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Sleeping with Jess!"

"Well," Rory stalled, her uneasiness peaking, and if she didn't have make up on she would have gladly put her face under a stream of cold water. "I am. I... I did. It's still very new."

Madeline jumped up and squealed, Louise smirked, somewhat proudly, and Paris just stared.

"Do you want me to have a debate with you about it? I'm fully qualified now."

"Thanks, Paris, I don't think a debate is necessary," Rory said sincerely.

"You're lucky," Madeline stated, calming down. "Are we jealous or happy for her?"

"Both," Louise decided.

"Thanks, I guess," Rory uttered.

"Okay, let's get out of here."

"Yes, my date should be here soon."

The girls left the bathroom and separated. When Rory and Paris found their dates, Jess wrapped an arm around Rory's waist.

"You look flushed. What did you do in there?" he asked teasingly.

"Oh, shush. And don't leave me alone with them again 'cause the questions will only get worse as they drink."

"Understood."

* * *

It was Ceasar's turn to close up the diner, so it was he who let Lorelai in, and with a supposedly knowing smile, prompted her to go upstairs. She muttered something about it being a just a friendly visit but when he started humming giddily, she just went on up.

The door to Luke's apartment opened even before she had a chance to knock.

"What's that?" Luke pointed to her hand, not wasting time for introductions.

"What?"

"That."

"Wine. We're celebrating."

"What are we celebrating?"

"That it's another Friday night and I made it alive out of dinner with my parents. And that life is way more exciting when there is a risk of becoming a grandmother or a grand-uncle," she told him, a huge fake grin plastered on her face.

"So basically we're drinking because otherwise we'd just sit here thinking about them."

"Exactly."

"Good plan."

"I thought so."

"So..." Luke awkwardly flailed his arms. "Uh... come on in."

"Thanks."

"Did you... bring the movies?"

"The movies? Oh, of course I brought the movies! I've got _Casablanca_, _Chinatown, Fried Green Tomatoes _and _Rocky_ I, II and III, which I thought you'd appreciate." Luke sneered in response but she ignored him.

"Right, well, have a sit," Luke awkwardly gestured towards the couch.

She did, and proceeded to pull out some junk food from her purse, because, as she told him, despite running a diner he had no idea about appropriate movie night food and she couldn't risk starvation for the rest of the night.

They both settled on the couch, far away from each other, dumbly watching some trailers on the first of the DVDs before Lorelai cleared her throat, and said, with a nervous laughter, "This is weird."

"Yeah," Luke agreed, slightly too fast.

"So maybe... the wine."

"Okay."

He got up, got two glasses and a corkscrew. Lorelai gave him a little smile when he filled her glass.

"For the kids and their prom and us not becoming grand-anything for many, many years."

"Cheers."

* * *

Jess really wanted to say it was boring, but he realised it might bring back memories of a certain party they attended not so long ago, so he refrained. He watched Rory mingle, occasionally throwing in a monosyllable of his own, then he retreated and sat down at a table where he made some quasi-conversation with Louise who was bored out of her mind waiting for her date to arrive and attempted to flirt with him in the meantime, until Rory came back from making the rounds and sat down in a chair next to him, amusedly thanking Louise for keeping him company.

Louise said it wasn't a problem, squealed when she saw someone in the crowd and wandered off.

"Having fun?" Jess asked Rory.

"It's actually not as bad as I imagined. The place is beautiful, isn't it? Snobby, but-"

"Yeah."

"What about you?" she looked at him with concern. "Do you hate it?"

"Ah, it has its good sides."

"Like?"

"Dean isn't here."

Rory bit the inside of her cheek, trying not to laugh, but her expression changed immediately when she spotted someone in the crowd. "Oh my God."

"What? Don't tell me he's here," Jess half-joked.

"No, of course not. It's Tristan," she nodded in the direction of a blonde guy who was walking with Louise hanging off his arm, a group of people gathering around them.

"Tristan? The guy you kissed at some party and who proceeded to make the Bag Boy's life living hell?"

"Before you came to town and took his place, yes."

"Can I meet him?" Jess asked with mock excitement.

Rory raised her brows at him and laughed out loud. "Sure." She kissed him on the cheek and got up, leading him to the newly-arrived guest.

"Tristan!" she exclaimed to catch his attention as she made her way through the crowd. He smiled widely at the sight of her and she approached him to give him a friendly hug.

"Well, well, Mary, how good to see you," he said and ostentatiously looked around. "What, no Stock Boy? You just took away my sole reason for coming here tonight!" Louise cleared her throat and Tristan smirked at her. "What, I was really looking forward to seeing the guy!"

Rory shook her head and caught Jess's hand, pulling him closer. "Tristan, this is Jess, my boyfriend. Jess, this is Tristan."

The two boys made eye contact and shook hands.

"I've heard only great things about you," Jess drawled sarcastically, yet good-naturedly.

"Can't really say the same thing, but it's a pleasure to meet you, Jess," Tristan responded in a similar manner.

Not giving them a chance to continue their exchange, Rory cut in, "So what, no prom at military school?"

"Yes, no prom at an all-male military academy. We were all terribly disappointed."

"I can imagine."

"So, Mary. High School's almost over, what are your plans now?"

Before she could answer Tristan, Jess leaned over to her and whispered right into her ear, "You catch up, I'm going to get some fresh air." She frowned at him, but before she could say a word he turned around and walked off towards the patio.

"So, new guy," Tristan continued.

"Yup," Rory nodded with a smile.

"Not jealous, this one?"

"Not particularly."

"Well, doesn't seem too bad. I'm glad to see your tastes are getting better."

"I'm glad to have your approval, Tristan," she teased.

"What's up, apart from that? Harvard in the fall?"

"Yale, actually."

"Nice."

"I hope so. What about you?"

"I'm moving to Colorado."

"Colorado?"

"To go to the Air Force Academy."

"Air Force? Wow. That's – wow."

"Yeah."

"Was the decision yours or your dad's?" Rory asked uncertainly.

"Mine, actually."

"So, the whole moving to North Carolina and going to military school worked out pretty well for you, huh?"

"Surprisingly, it did. Just don't tell my father, he can never know that," he smirked.

"Well, good for you, Tristan," she smiled.

Jess, in the meantime, stepped out into the garden, away from people, only to be approached by no one other by Paris Gellar, the terror of Chilton herself. Personally, he didn't actually think she was all that bad. Crazy, but possible to have a conversation with. And he didn't say that lightly.

"Lost Jamie?"

"He's talking about Princeton to a bunch of idiots who didn't bother to do their own research. You?"

"Just felt like taking a walk," he shrugged. He wouldn't admit that he fled the building at the first sign of a conversation about the future.

Paris nodded and looked him up and down. "Don't you worry that Kerouac would be very disappointed if he saw you right now?"

"I like to stir things up," he said lightly and shrugged.

"And your current attempt to clean up is supposed to stir up what, exactly?"

"Good old Jack in his grave, of course."

"As long as you've got it thought through."

He gave her a nod.

"So, what's up with you? Other than reading things that are best left alone and sleeping with Rory?"

Jess frowned. Rory talked about those things with Paris? Lane, he could sort of imagine, but Paris?

"Nothing." After a moment of silence, he found himself saying, "Sorry you didn't get into Harvard."

"Whatever. It's their loss and I'm over it," she said confidently before pausing. "Wait... Did you hear from Rory or the news?"

"Both," he admitted. "It was rather impressive."

"Bite me."

"No, I'm serious," he said, not quite able to get rid of the teasing tone of his voice. "You rarely find such honesty on TV these days. Besides, think of all the kids you scared away from having sex."

"I've never pegged you for such an optimist.

"I have my moments," Jess shrugged, smirking, unaware of what was coming.

"So, where are you going to college, Jess?"

"Jeez, why is everyone talking about that tonight? Isn't prom supposed to be about having fun?"

"It is. And probably because we're about to graduate high school and that's the most relevant subject there is. So? I don't think Rory ever told me."

"I don't wanna talk about it," he said, suddenly glaring at her.

"Why?"

"Which part of the last sentence was unclear?"

"You are my best friend's boyfriend, I think I'm entitled to this sort of information."

"Just leave me the hell alone, would you?"

"Did I strike a chord?" Paris asked, clearly not about to give up.

"Listen, Paris. I really don't feel like getting in a fight with you tonight, so since you won't go away, allow me," he said irritably and walked away.

* * *

"Um, Rory?"

"Jess?"

"When do you think we can get out of here?"

"Soon."

"Which is?"

"After you dance with me."

"After I do what?"

"Dumb does not become you."

"Come on, Ror, you know I don't dance."

"Come on, Jess," she mimicked him, "this is prom. And these people don't even know you. One dance, that's all I'm asking."

"Now?"

"Well... if you want to try and slow-dance to the Macarena," she grinned.

He sighed. "I don't know."

"Please?" she said and kissed him, letting it linger. "You're tense. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he answered, more sharply than he intended.

Rory pulled away and stared at him with disbelief, her expression showing clearly how much that one little word hurt her.

"Rory..."

"I thought we were over this!"

"You really want to do this here?" he muttered.

"Fine, let's go outside," she answered shortly and marched out, Jess in tow. She turned to him when they were already in the park, prompting him to speak. He didn't, and she shook her head. "So we're back to square one? Jess, I really thought we came a long way over the last few weeks, and now you're shutting me out again!"

"I'm trying here, Rory, but don't expect me to suddenly be spilling my guts out in public with people dancing the fucking Macarena around!"

"Okay. We're outside now, we can talk." It was meant to be soothing, but she was too angry herself at the moment and instead it came out as almost-shouting.

Jess looked away, into the darkness, and took a shaky breath before his eyes returned to hers. To her surprise, they were unusually shiny. He was biting his lower lip, as if his instincts were trying to prevent him from opening his mouth, but he won them over.

"I'm scared, okay? I'm scared that one day, maybe this summer, maybe when you'll start Yale, you'll realise that you can do so much better than being with a high school drop-out who hasn't got a fucking clue as to where his life is headed. You'll want someone as ambitious as you, someone you can introduce to your grandparents without flinching, someone-"

"Stop telling me what I will want!" She furiously wiped away tears that had gathered in the corner of her eyes, and it was his turn to stare at her, completely taken aback. "Jess... I told you I love you, I'm trying to help you through whatever it is you are going through, I'm giving _all_ of myself to you – what else do I have to do to prove to you that I'm in this and I'm taking this seriously? Give me some credit here!" She paused, absently fixing her eyes on the mansion and its bright windows. "And yes, I am upset about you flunking out of school, but it's about you being happy, not about me, and certainly not about fitting in with my grandparents. We fit," she motioned at the space between them. "School or no school, Jess, we fit – on so many levels, and-" a quiet sob heaved from deep within her chest, cutting into her monologue. By the time fresh tears slid down her cheeks, Jess was holding her so tight she could barely breathe, so she responded by wrapping her arms around his waist and finishing into his neck, "And no Europe or Yale can destroy it."

"Shh," he said into her hair, his hand moving up and down her back in a comforting gesture. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "For freaking out and making you cry at prom."

She sniffled, taking her time to compose herself, then she slightly pulled away. "Do I have mascara all over my face?" she asked, a sheepish expression gracing her features.

Jess brought his hand to Rory's face, wiping away the tear-stained cheeks. "Nope." She gave him a small smile. "Hey, listen," he said, freezing in place.

"What?"

"Something slow is starting."

She listened intently for a moment too, before letting out a small chuckle. "_The Scientist_. That's just typical."

He was smirking, remembering one night of failed tutoring and their discussion about _how on earth Coldplay could be considered an alternative band_. "Wanna dance?"

She smiled in response, caught his hand, and they returned to the mansion to join other couples in swaying slowly on the dance floor.

Her hands rested on his shoulders while his found her waist. She smiled up at him again, her eyes sparkly. "So the best way to get you to dance is to get into a massive fight with you first, right?" she asked matter-of-factly.

"Obviously," he rolled his eyes.

"I'll remember that."

"I'd rather you didn't," he said right into her ear, closing the space between them and moving his hand to the small of her back. It sent a shiver up Rory's spine, so piercing her shoulders jerked on their own.

"Cold?"

She shook her head, burying her face in his neck.

"Ah. The other thing," he stated, a smirk apparent in his voice.

"Just shut up and dance, Jess."

* * *

It was only appropriate that after the intimate, almost fairy-tale moment they shared during the dance, something sobering would happen.

Something sobering, in this particular case, was Madeline, rushing towards them with her red-haired escort right behind her. "Rory! Rory!"

"Hi. Everything okay?"

"Actually, Paris asked me to tell you that Jamie had some sort of a family emergency and they had to leave."

"Oh."

"Does that mean that you have no transportation to get back home? Because our limo is heading to the beach after we're done here, you two are welcome to join us," she smiled widely.

"I think we'll pass," Rory replied, immediately reading Jess's expression.

"Oh, okay," Madeline nodded. "Just find me if you change your mind. See you!"

Rory turned fully to Jess, her expression rather concerned. "How are we going to get back home?"

"I saw a bus stop on the main road."

"I guess I could call Mom to come and get us-"

"Hey, she wasn't meant to see me in a tux," he retorted jokingly.

"- but I kind of don't want to."

"So?"

"The bus it is. There must be something going towards Hartford from here, right?"

"I suppose."

"Okay. Let's just say goodbye to Tristan and Louise, at least, then we can go."

"You want to go already?"

"You don't?" she frowned at him.

"I would, but I believe I was promised a make out session at prom."

"Oh... Oh." Her eyes flashed with the memory and she felt heat rising in her cheeks. "Not here, Jess."

"Then let's go somewhere more secluded. What's upstairs?"

"No idea."

"So let's go explore."

"Okay."

* * *

They found a relatively private spot at the end of the upstairs hallway, in a corner right beside a window looking over the vast estate. It was there, where driven by the need to be a normal, careless teenager for a moment, as well as pure desire building up throughout the evening, Jess backed Rory against a wall, pouring out all of his emotions in one very extended kiss. "Did I tell you yet," he mumbled against her lips, "that you look pretty damn amazing tonight?"

She pulled away, her hands resting on his chest, and grinned in amusement. "No. I've received compliments from my mother, Luke, Jamie, Tristan, Louise, Madeline, and a bunch of other people you don't know, but not from you."

His teasing tone in place, to protect his reputation, Jess said, "Well, you did receive a 'you look beautiful' kiss back at Luke's."

She smiled, kissing the corner of his mouth. "You did, too."

"Beautiful?" he asked with a frown.

"Insert any synonymous adjective that doesn't wound your manly ego," she laughed. "Jess."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming. It really means a lot to me."

He didn't reply, only crashed his lips to hers again.

When they pulled away, their breathing erratic and both with slightly dishevelled hair, Rory smiled at him warmly. "Well, I believe we got the full prom experience now."

He gave her a nod. "Let's get you home, Gilmore."

* * *

Back in the lounge, Rory and Tristan exchanged their goodbyes first, half-jokingly and half-sincerely inviting each other for visits to Colorado and Yale. But when Rory moved to say goodnight to a noticeably tipsy Louise, the blonde young man took a step towards Jess.

"Kudos, man." Jess only questionably raised his eyebrows. "For getting her out of the Jolly Green Giant's paws. I thought she was headed for a Jolly Green Forever, since I tried for like, a year and failed."

"I'd say sorry but I'd be lying."

"Fair enough, man. Just don't blow it because then I'd have to quit school and move back here and while on some levels that _would_ be great, I kind of had to study a lot to get in and I'd hate to see it all going to waste."

"I appreciate the heads up," Jess rolled his eyes.

"Well, anyway, give Dean-o my love when you see him around."

"Sure thing."

Knowing full well that Rory wouldn't be very proud of either of them at that moment, they exchanged smirks of something like unity, making quite a few girls around swoon in the process.

* * *

The night was warm, the moon was high on the sky, lighting the way, and the quiet walk along the road leading through the park was a welcome change after all the commotion of the Wadsworth Mansion. They walked arm in arm, not talking much, just absorbing the peacefulness of the moment.

That was, until Rory wrapped an arm around Jess's torso, claiming that she was a little cold.

He looked down at her, shrugged off her arm and took off his jacket. Rory's eyes widened and she started giggling when he put it on her shoulders.

"Don't say a word," Jess mock-glared.

She continued laughing.

"Rory!"

"I wasn't saying anything!" she uttered, a smile splitting her face.

"Well, don't."

"But I feel compelled to! That was _so_ corny!"

"Shut up."

"You're cute," she laughed out.

"Am not!"

"Thus proving my point."

"You know, maybe I'm just gonna leave you here in this wood."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh, really?"

"Really."

"You're lying," Rory teased.

Jess had no answer to that. But it didn't matter at this particular moment because their lips met and words weren't necessary.

"Being corny with you is fun," Rory said, giving him one final peck on the mouth before they resumed walking, her drowning in his tuxedo jacket.

Two limos passed by soon, Madeline waving from the window of one of them, and some five minutes later they were at the bus stop, if that's what a pole and a falling apart bench could be described as. There was no timetable.

So they just got on the first bus that arrived, which was old and shaky and sat down. It wasn't until a few minutes later they took a break from making out, Jess looked out the window and saw a sign stating that New Haven was closer than it should have been.

"Shit."

"What?"

"We're going the wrong way."

"What?" Rory screeched.

"Come on, let's get off."

Indeed, the bus stopped in a matter of seconds and they jumped off, which admittedly required some skill from Rory in her heels and long dress. They crossed the road to get to another stop, where they could get a bus which would supposedly take them in the right direction.

This bus stop had a timetable. It just didn't have any more busses coming by until 5:30 am.

"It's twenty past twelve," Rory said.

"I know."

"We're in the middle of nowhere."

"I know."

"What do we do?"

She didn't exactly do this deliberately, but apparently her slightly panicked tone was precisely what Jess's manly, protective instincts needed to kick off.

"Rory, it's okay."

"Oh God, Mom can never find out about this. She would kill us both."

"Relax, we can hitchhike."

As if on cue, a car that just drove past slowed down, and stopped several metres away from them.

"Jess. I don't like this," Rory said, starting to nervously squeeze his hand.

He didn't answer, just looked towards the car, the door that swung open and the silhouette of the man that stepped out.

He was of middle height, rather extensive stomach, characteristic for a certain type of middle aged men and...

And he was wearing a cardigan.

"No. Freaking. Way." That was Rory's reaction.

Jess settled for a shorter one. "Fuck."

"Rory?" the man took a few steps towards the teenagers. "What are you doing so far away from home at this hour, young lady?"

"We went to prom at the Wadsworth Mansion, Taylor. What are _you_ doing so far away from home at this hour?" she asked swiftly, hoping that he wouldn't notice and ask questions about them going in the opposite direction of home.

"I have visited my brother in Maryland. My homecoming was delayed by my vehicle breaking down. Awful journey, let me tell you."

He rambled for a little more, then, to Jess's irritation, ushered them to his car, not letting them say as much as a word.

Taylor started the car. He talked and asked some obnoxious questions. Rory answered them. Jess sulked, looking out of the window.

Rory, not really wanting to interrupt her mother and Luke's movie night with a call, sent Lorelai a text.

* * *

"Rory's writing something about being in Taylor's car. I must be drunk."

"You _are_ drunk," Luke chuckled.

"The word is 'tipsy', my friend."

"If you say so. So they're almost home?"

"Yes. That's what the message says. I think," she said, staring at the display of her cell phone with concentration. "Yup," she decided and put the phone away.

And casually, with her natural boldness enhanced by wine, she moved towards Luke and settled with her back against his side, some warm and fuzzy feeling rising in her chest when his arm circled her waist and pulled her a little closer.

* * *

Rory kept glancing at Jess, thinking how exactly she should extend the invitation for the night, since she hadn't told him, wanting to make it a surprise. Which was dumb. What, was she supposed to grab him by the shirt and pull him inside the house just to rip it off him? That was so not her. Though, the image in her head was kind of...

God, sitting in the back of Taylor Doose's car, all hot and bothered, with Jess next to her was probably the last scenario she would ever think of for her prom night.

"Rory? Rory."

The car was parked in front of the diner.

"Oh! Oh. Thank you so much, Taylor. We will see you around."

"Oh no. I will deliver you straight to your door."

"There's no need! It's Stars Hollow! And Jess will walk me home!"

Taylor muttered something that sounded like, "That's my concern, exactly," to which she covertly rolled her eyes.

"Just let me say goodnight, then," she told him and got out of the car, standing next to her boyfriend.

"I'm feeling totally emasculated here," he smirked. "First you pick me up, now I'm the first one to be dropped off."

Rory scoffed, motioning to Taylor.

"Well, goodnight, Miss Gilmore."

"Not yet," she blurted out.

"What?"

"Come over," she said, avoiding his eyes. "My Mom and Luke, are watching some movies in the apartment so the house is... you know. Just pretend that you're going in so that Taylor's calm and come over."

He raised an eyebrow, gave her a warm smirk and a teasing kiss on the lips which left her blushing for the next few minutes.

"As you wish."

And when he knocked on the door of the Gilmore house ten minutes later, she kind of put into effect the 'rip the shirt off' scenario. Kind of.

But it made the prom night an extra bit memorable.

* * *

Lorelai woke up around 9 a.m. with her head pounding from a hangover and neck hurting from using Luke's thigh as a pillow.

Luke's thigh.

Luke's couch.

Luke's apartment, and two empty bottles of wine.

Oh God.

She sat up, rather mortified and looked at her movie-night buddy, still asleep with his head against the back of the couch. That ought to hurt too, she noted, getting her shoes from under the couch and putting them on. In a bit of a panic, she sneaked out of the apartment, quietly closing the door. She leaned against a wall and took a deep, shaky breath, before descending the stairs and entering the diner. She was welcomed by Babette making wide eyes at her seemingly dishevelled look and Taylor disgustedly commending on the declining morals of the young women of Stars Hollow. She ignored him and stepped outside, squinting at the bright sun and cheerful and far too loud sounds of small town Saturday morning.

She walked home, attempting really hard to give no thought at all to the events of last night. When she opened the front door - as silently as possible, more for her own benefit than anyone else's – and took a few steps forward, she was greeted by the heavenly smell of pancakes, as well as a sight of her dearest daughter and her hoodlum boyfriend, sitting at the table and devouring a stack of pancakes, as hungrily as it was possible whilst laughing about some book Lorelai knew nothing about. To her relief, they were showing no signs of being hangover themselves, so calming down now, but miserably anyway, she walked into the kitchen to eat whatever was left.

Post-prom morning indeed.


End file.
